Ranma Alternative Saga
by wicked ryoko26
Summary: Ryoga meets a strange girl in trouble and Ranma doesn't like her very much for some reason and in later chapters... Ranma finds that he's not an only child.
1. Chapter 1

I don't own Ranma 1/2, Rumiko Takahashi does.

Have you ever wondered how Ranma 1/2 would be with the introduction of only a few people? In this one, we will ponder over one of these new characters and her relationship with Ryoga.

First a few reminders.

"" Are what people say.

( ) Are peoples thoughts.

Are the author's comments.

'' Are what's on the Panda's signs.

Disclaimer: All characters except the added ones belong to Rumiko Takahashi. The new ones belong me, Ryoko.

This story would brobably be Rated PG13 to a lot of people, but I don't care. If you're comfortable with the series, READ ON.

One last thing. The main enemy has had some changes made to his powers for dramatic purposes. I know full well what he's supposed to do, so don't worry about it.

The Saga Begins: Kayley and Ryoga

Ryoga Hibiki found himself in a strange mall, not near as strange as the time he wandered into India, but he realized that he wasn't even in Japan. Whils trying to find the Tendo Dojo, Ryoga once again got lost. Now he's somewhere in America. Luckily, in his travels, Ryoga learned English.

A crowd gathered around two combatants. One of them was a girl. She was 5 foot 1 with blonde hair that didn't quite reach her shoulders and had blue eyes.

The other one was a man. He had long, brown hair and he wore a long Chinese robe. He wasn't a particularly powerful man, but it has been in Ryoga's experience, that martial artists that lack strength tend to make up for it in skill.

While blocking the man's kicks, the girl asked, "I guess Saffron can't even do his own dirty work."

Soon one of the man's kicks struck her in the stomach. The man retorted in between punches, "If you'd...only...stayed with him...this wouldn't...be happening."

The girl was so disoriented from the previous blows, that she couldn't block the fist sailing towards her. Fear set in and she let out a short scream. The man yelled, "NOW IT ENDS!"

A hand caught the punch only inches from the girl's face. The girl looked up to see her savior. She saw a young man, about 16 years old. His hair was black and his bangs were so long, that the yellow and black patterned bandana was probably the only the only thing keeping his hair out of his eyes.

He was, well, the best way of putting it was, snarling at her attacker. His teeth were bared and man, niether could believe it, but he had fangs. To the girl, his fangs were down-right cute, but to her attacker they were fearsome. As if you haven't guessed, I'm talking about Ryoga. Anyway, Ryoga used his astounding strength to painfully crack the man's knuckles as Ryoga growled, "Yes, now it ends."

With one hand, Ryoga grabbed the man's collar and lifted him off the ground. He then slammed him back into the ground causing a crater to form.

Ryoga checked to make sure the man was still alive, he was. Then he went to see if the girl was okay. Now that he had a better look at her, he could tell she was older than he thought. He thought she was only 13 or 14. The poor girl was shaking and he knew that the girl wasn't really an experienced fighter. The girl was on the verge of crying but, somehow, the presence of Ryoga made her feel better.

Soon she calmed down and she started to notice just how cute he actually was. Her smile showed her teeth and Ryoga noticed that she had fangs too, though her were smaller than his. The girl finally said, "Oh thank you so much!"

Ryoga asked her, "Just what were you doing trying to fight him?"

The girl answered, "Well, I tried to run away from him, but when you're backed into a corner, what else can you do?"

Ryoga admitted, "You have a point." Then he asked, "My name is Ryoga Hibiki. What's yours."

She said, "I'm Kayley Ryne."

Ryoga commented, "What a pretty name." Then he started to blush, but he had an important question to ask, "Uh, do you know where Tokyo is?" He expected her to start busting out in laughter, but it never came.

With complete seriousness she answered, "To the best of knowledge, it's 10,000 miles to the East and at this time of day, I don't even know which way East is without a compass."

Ryoga looked disappointed and Kayley begged, "Oh, please forgive me, but I really have a hard time navigating in towns and cities. I'm very sorry."

Ryoga gave her an I know what you mean look, then said, "Well, I guess I've got a long way to go, so goodbye and I hope no one else bothers you."

Kayley waved and said, "Bye."

As Ryoga walked off he thought to himself, (What a sweet girl, cute too. Who on earth would want to hurt her?)

Kayley had thoughts of her own, except they were, (Man! He's gorgeous!) She walked over to where the man still layed. Ryoga's words popped into her mind, (I hope no on else bothers you.) She sighed because she knew that Saffron would never give up.

About one month later in Tokyo, more specifically, Nerima. Akane and Ranma race to school. Akane, who was in a particularly good mood this morning, wanted to tease Ranma, "Hey, did you see P-Chan trying to bring me breakfast in bed? How cute!"

Ranma started muttering something about "Stupid Ryoga" when one of Akane's friends came up from behind them and said, "Hurry up, we're going to be late." Ranma and Akane leave a cloud of dust in thier wake.

At Furnkin High, everyone leasurely waits for the bell. Ranma and his "partners in crime" Hiroshi and Daisuke noticed a girlwith kinda short blonde hair. Ranma asked, "Who is she?"

Daisuke said, "I don't know her name but she's a senior."

Hiroshi cut in, "She's also a babe."

Ranma watched her. She was very small, probably the smallest girl in the intire school. It wasn't that he was interested in her, but a girl like her wouldn't be able to handle hentais like Kuno. And as if bad luck had read his mind, Tatewaki Kuno, the biggest hentai of them all, came into view.

Kuno presented a rose to the girl and announced himself, "Golden-haired goddess, I am Upperclassman Kuno, grade 11. Who might you be?"

With a cruel imitating tone she said, "Asinine, I am Upperclassman Ryne, grade 12."

Her comment was meant as a put-down for his pick-up lines. But Kuno was such a baka, that it only encouraged him. Kuno commented, "Ahh, you have exquisite tastes." He then advanced to Kayley with the intent on kissing her.

It was at this time that Ranma decided to intervene, "Hey, Kuno! Give the girl a break. It's only her first day."

Kuno swiftly twirled her into his arms and asked Ranma, "Saotome, why must you try to destroy our love?" Before either knew what happened, Kuno's face twisted in agony and fell to his knees. ranma saw that she was taking him down with one finger.

On closer inspection, he saw that she had pressed her thumb into the cuticle of his thumb. She finally let go of him and Ranma asked, "Wow! How did you do that?"

Kayley explained, "pressure points. The human body has thousands of them. Some of them hurt, terribly, while others can heal." She laughed in spite of herself, "And I know them all."

Of course it didn't change Kuno's feelings for her, niether did the constant beating he got from his pig-tailed goddess. So Kayley would just have to keep getting rid of him.

A few days later, kayley decided to take a break before going home, so she sat down under a tree. She was enjoying the cool breeze,and the sounds of the PLOP. Do you like my special effects? -Kayley looked on the other end of the tree and saw an exhausted Ryoga. Surprised, she smiled and said "Hi!"

She waited paitently for him to catch his breath and when he did, he asked, "What are you doing all the way here?"

Kayley told him, "Well I was in the neiborhood and I thought I'd stay here." Which was aflat out lie, just so you know. She playfully teased, "So, did you ever get to where you were going, or did you just get here?"

Ryoga shook his head and said, "No, I was only gone a few days this time."

Some guy came up to Kayley saying, "Hey Sweety! How 'bout a date?"

Without saying anything, she took her thumb and index finger and grabbed the bone that connected his thumb and index finger. Soon he went down the same way Kuno did.

Ryoga exclaimed, "How did...! I mean...!"

She told him, "let's just say, if I have the opportunity, I can be a powerful opponent." To change the subject, she asked, "So, where are you headed?"

Ryoga ssaid, "I'm trying to find the Tendo Dojo."

Kayley patted his shoulder and said, "That's great! I go by there on my way home anyway. I'll even buy you a coke."

(What a deal,) Ryoga thought! How could he pass it up? Ryoga quickly realized that Kayley wasn't kidding about her having probems getting around. They became so confused after a short while and before they knew it, they reached the outskirts of Nerima. Kayley soon got ticked off and mumbled a few choice words. Hey! I'm not saying them because they're not important. Besides, they're not the slight profanity. Kayley called out, "TAXI!"

Thirty-six seconds later, a cab arrived and they were heading for the dojo. During the trip, Ryoga said, "I'm sorry that I got you lost."

Kayley told him, "Ryoga, it's not your fault. I'm not mad at you. Heck, I can't get anywhere without calling a cab. I just get mad at myself, that's all."

When they got to the Tendo Dojo, they were greeted by Kasumi, "Hello, Ryoga. Who's your little friend?"

Ryoga said, "This is Kayley Ryne. Is Akane home?"

Kasumi smiled innocently and told them, "Why, yes. Come on in."

They found Akane and Ranma sparring. Well, sort of. Ranma wasn't throwing any punches, just dodging them. Ranma saw Ryoga and Kayley and let his guard down. Of course, Akane punched him. Ryoga laughed and Akane noticed them and said, "Ryoga, how long have you been there?"

Then Ranma put in, "Hey, Kayley, where'd youdig him up? Canada?"

Akane asked, "Do you want to practice with us?"

With that, Akane and Kayley sparred while Ranma and Ryoga sparred. To tell the truth, Ranma and Ryoga were pretty even in overall skill. But Ryoga had superior strength while Ranma had superior speed. It would be hard to compare Akane and Kayley. Kayley's basic moves were that of an amature, but her defense was very good. Akane finally asked, "Don't you know any special moves?"

Kayley anounced, "Of course, I just didn't want to hurt you."

Akane said, "well, show us."

Kayley thought for a moment, "Ranma, will you help me? Just stand against the wall."

When he did, Kayley shoved her fists into his arm sockects. Ranma didn't feel any pain. He said, "So?"

Kayley said with a smirk, "So, try to move."

Ranma couldn't move. Even when she released him, his arms were still paralized. Ryoga asked, "What in the world did you do to him?"

A bit frightened, Akane asked, "Is he going to stay liked this?"

Kayley explained, "Don't worry. All I did was lock up his arm muscles. Once he works out the kinks in his arms, he'll be fine."

Soon Ryoga told them, "I guess I better be going." And he walked off.

Kayley was starting to get hungry, so she said, "I better go too. I'm planning on fixing a pizza."

Ranma cut in, "You mean Okonomiyaki?"

Kayley shook her head, "No, American pizza. Bye!"

Outside the Dojo, Kayley saw Ryoga head towards a pond bihind it. He jumped in and emerged as a little black piglet with a yellow and black bandana around his neck. Kayley watched him go back into the Dojo and heard Akane yell, "Oh, P-Chan! You came back!"

Kayley finally walked off and after much brooding, she stated flatly, "Jusenkyo."

Furinkin High was in an uproar today. A mysterious man with white hair appeared, threatening everyone. Kayley was getting worried because he was after her. What was so bad was that it was someone whom noone has defeated. He was Saffron, himself. Most of you have heard of him, if not, well here goes my description. He was the self-proclaimed ruler of the Phoenix people that live in the Jusnkyo Mountains. And like the Phoenix, he can be reborn when his energy is depleted. Though he tries not to let that happen. Kayleyknew all too well of the power he possesed.

Luckily, Kayley saw him coming a mile away and started looking for a place to hide. Running like crazy, she quickly came upon the figure of Ryoga. She whispered, "Oh no. Please no." She wanted to tell him to run away. But then, Saffron would here her for sure.

She got to Ryoga and started to tug on his arm. Ryoga asked, "What's wrong, Kayley?"

Kayley was afraid, not for herself but for Ryoga. He had helped her and she pretty much knew that Saffron had a detailed description of him. Kayley became desperate. She tugged even harder and her voice let out a strangled choke that let Ryoga know it was serious. Ryoga followed her into a shed.

He started to ask something but Kayley clapped her hand over his mouth. He felt her hand shaking and had to wonder what Saffron had done to make her so frightened. Kayley heard Saffron's footsteps and scooted even further back, bumping into Ryoga. Without thinking, Ryoga put his arms around her protectively.

Saffron stopped in front of the shed and listened for the faintest sound. None came so he moved on. Kayley gave a sigh of relief and laid her head on his shoulder.

Ryoga finally realized what he was doing, blushed, then let go. kayley opened the door, finding the coast clear. By now, Ryoga was beyond confused. Sternly, he asked, "Kayley, tell me. What's going on?"

Kayley lowered her head, as if ashamed and replied, "He wants my energy." Ryoga looked at her strangely and she continued, "Basically, I'm energy food for Saffron. When he drains my energy, Saffron's powers increase to it's maximum range."

Ryoga asked, "Does he really need your energy?"

Kayley told him, "Well, he could get energy by other means, but the transformation takes much longer. Draining my energy takes only a few minutes.

Ryoga couldn't exactly imagine how she felt, but he knew how drained he felt when he used his Shishi Houkodan and somehow he knew it was worse for her. Ryoga made a decision, "Tell me where this Saffron is and I'll make sure he never he never harms you again."

Kayley told him fearfully, "And get yourself killed? In his current state, it wouldn't matter how strong you are." She wanted to say, "And I like you too much." But she couldn't. She told him, "Ryoga, I've put you in too much danger already. Don't get any more involve."

Ryoga started to oppose her decision, and in fear for his life, she hit him in the breastbone with the palm of her hand. Ryoga fell to the ground, gasping for breath. Even though it did seem cruel, at the moment, to leave him like that. She knew it was for the best.

This is my first story here, so please review.


	2. Chapter 2

I don't own Ranma 1/2...I wish I did though.

* * *

Dinner time at the Tendo Dojo was always the best place to get the latest Furinkan High gossip. Ranma had been sort of worried about something, so he asked Akane, "What do you think of Kayley?"

Akane said, "She seems nice." A sudden thought hit her. She said sarcastically, "Say, you've got a crush on her. Is that it?"

Ranma yelled out, "Kawaii-kune!"

Akane added, "Besides, she likes Ryoga."

Shocked, Ryoga exclaimed, "What! No way! Ryoga has absolutely no idea what she's like! She's dangerous! Not even Ryoga deserves that!"

Akane's face flushed with anger as she promtly hit Ranma and told him, "How could you say that about poor, good-hearted Ryoga? And how would you know if she's dangerous or not?"

Ranma told her in a proud tone, "Akane, all good martial artists can sense that kind of stuff."

Akane became furious as she started whacking him repeatedly yelling, "Ranma no baka!"This seems to happen alot, doesn't it?

Ryoga was sitting by a pond, waiting for the water he made a fire for to heat up. Check it out. He's in Akane's back yard. Ranma spotted Ryoga, came up to him and asked, "Yo, Ryoga. What's up?"

Ryogajust looked at him and said, sorta depressed, "Just leave me alone, Ranma. I don't feel like arguing with you."

Ranma plopped down next to him and asked, "Are you still mad at me for pulling your tail this morning?"

His only answer was Ryoga putting his head in his hands. Without looking up, Ryoga asked, "What do you want?"

Ranma suddenly became very serious when he asked, "Where did you first meet Kayley?"

Surprised, Ryoga reacted, "Hmm, uh, what?"

"you heard me"

Ryoga told him, "I met her in America. Someone was trying to kidnap her."

Ranma nodded her head and replied, "That's what I thought."

Ryoga started to get defensive, "What do you mean, that's what I thought?"

Ranma got up and started to walk off, but he turned around and warned, "Ryoga, it would be a good idea to stay away from Kayley." Then he continued on his way.

Ryoga said to himself, "Stay away from her? Why?" He rubbed his chest from where Kayley had hit him because it had left a pretty big bruise on him."

One of Akane's friends came stomping up to her, Kayley and a few other girls were there too. Akane asked, "What's wrong, Sachiko?"

Sachiko's face was burning with fury as she sputtered, "I can't stand Kuno! He just tried to get me to date him, telling me stuff that i'm not sure whether to be flattered or insulted."

Kayley started giggling and Akane told her, "It's not funny. Kuno is a real nusiance. Wait till he starts hitting on you."

Kayley began laughing even harder and said, "Too late, I've already had to hurt him for doing that same thing. Besides, I've got an ideaon how to stop him. We'll have a male beauty pageant."

Sachiko looked at her strangely and asked, "What good will that do?"

Kayley explained, "Believe it or not, men are very easily embarrassed. My point is, we'll give him a taste of his own medicine."

Akane smirked, "Let's get Ranma in it too. He's such a Jerk."

Kumani, another girl, said, "Well that's settled, but we need at least three contestants."

Kayley told them, "That won't be a problem. We'll just promise the winner a kiss from Akane."

Akane shouted, "No way! What if Ranma or Kuno wins?"

Kayley reasurred Akane, "Don't worry about that, but we need your help." Hesitantly, Akane agreed and all the preperations were made.

The day of the contest quickly came. Kuno eagerly agreed when he heard about the prize. It took brutal persuation on Akane's part to get Ranma to enter it. Kayley got Hiroshi and Daisuke to enter it, just for the heck of it. In case you don't know who they are. They're the guys always hanging around Ranma.

Still, Akane didn't want to kiss any of them. So it was up to Kayley to find someone she will give a kiss to. And as luck would have it, at that moment, Ryoga came walking up, obviously tired and clearly lost again. Then a thought struck her, she told him, "Ryoga, come with me a sec. I've got to talk to you."

"What! Are you kidding! I can't go out, in front of everyone in a male's bikini!"

Kayley thought to herself, (I thought so.) She decided to be honest with him, "Listen, Ryoga. We girls are fed up with all the hentais like Kuno. So we're letting him, Ranma and a few others know what it's like to be oggled at, and well, we need a winner so Akane doesn't have to kiss one of those dorks."

Ryoga sputtered, "A k...kiss...from Akane?"

Kayley decided to give him a break. She went over to a water fountain with a paper cup and filled it with cold water and asked, "Would you go out as P-Chan?"

Ryoga asked in surprise, "You mean you know about P-..."

At that moment Kayley splashed him and in an instant, he was P-Chan once again. Ryoga Oops, I mean P-Chan. started to walkon stage when she stopped him, "Hold it! You forgot this!" Kayley up a pig-sized bikini that was yellow and black.

The spotlight flashed on, Ranma, Kuno, Hiroshi and Daisuke was standing in front of about maybe 200 women. Ranma and Kuno were both in skimpy bikinis while Hiroshi and Daisuke, at least, had enough sense to wear swim trunks.

Kayley stepped out from behind the curtain and came up to the center or the stage with a microphone and with excitement, she did the introductions, "Welcome, everyone from Furinkan High and St. Bacchus school for girls."

Kuno's eyes narrowed as he repeated, "St. Bacchus?" Just as he thought, in the front row, he saw his sister, Kodachi. Kuno called out, "Younger sister, what are you doing here?"

Kodachi answered innocently, "Elder brother, I have merely come here to visit with my Ranma-sama."

That thought wasn't exactly very comforting to Kuno. Kayley continued, "Our first contestant is the cute, the cuddly, P-Chan!" Techno music started as P-Chan is dancing in his cute little bikini.

Surprised, Akane shouted "P-Chan, what are you doing here?"

Soon P-Can starting oinking and sweeing to the music and the crowd was going wild. Ranma, Kuno, Hiroshi and Daisuke soon got much of the same treatment. Something tells me that everybody was in on the act because the others didn't get that much of a response. When it came time for the judging, Kayley called out, "Alright everybody! Who will be our winner? Your vote is everything. Let's hear it for Ranma."

Only Kodachi was showing her enthusiasm.

"Kuno?" A blonde haired girl from another school was cheering him on with pom-poms was all that was heard. When it came to Hiroshi and Daisuke, no one could be heard.

So by unanimus decision, P-Chan was declared the winner. P-Chan's face was seen to blush as Akane eagerly gave him a kiss on the snout. This served to make Ranma mad. Kuno heard him mumble something about "Stupid Ryoga!"

Kayley helped Akane clean up and when they were done, Kayley told Akane, who was still holding P-Chan " I guess I better get going."

Akane stopped her, "Wait! I want to thank you for helping us teach them a lesson." She giggled and continued, "And for finding me such a cute winner. Why don't you stay over at my house tonight. We can play dress up with P-Chan."

Kayley agreed and for an hour or so, things went great. Oh, sure, Ranma's been chasing P-Chan all over the dojo, but that happens all the time anyway. Kayley asked, "Is it all right if I take a bath?"

Akane told her, "Of course, go ahead."

Kayley sighed with relaxation. She had no idea when the last time she's had so much fun. The bath water was almost scalding hot, the room soon filled up with fog like a sauna. Kayley planned on taking a long bath, but she heard P-Chan running and saw him run into the bathroom and he jumped, Or more precisely bouncedonto a cabinet just above the bathtub. Ranma came stomping in as well. Ranma soon found that running on a wet tile floorwas not a very good idea.

He started sliding towards Kayley. He made an even bigger mistake by putting his hands in front of him to break his fall. Kayley let out a little screech and Ranma shut his eyes as they collided.

Ranma, who still had his eyes closed, felt something soft and squishy. He looked up and saw the face of a majorly ticked off Kayley. Ranma looked down at what he was squeezing and it wasn't good news.

Kayley's face distorted hideously as she growled, "I'm gonna twist you like a pretzel!"

Ranma knew she was going to try to do just that, but lucky for him she wouldn't let him see the rest of her, so he was able to stay out of her reach. She soon drove him out of the bathroom by throwing everything from bars of soap to shampoo bottles. She even threw Soun's electric razor at him. She screamed, "GET OUT OF HERE YOU HENTAI!"

When that was finally over P-Chan started laughing, but the cabinet was slippery and P-Chan fell into Kayley's bathwater. P-Chan quickly turned into a naked Ryoga.

They stared at each other for a long moment. Kayley was so preoccupied staring at, well let's just say, points of interest, that she didn't even notice that he was doing his fair share of looking as well. The one thing that was running through her mind was, (Wow! Where have you been all my life?)

Aside from being cursed with a lousy sense of direction, Ryoga's shyness was uncanny. he finally muttered, "P...Please don't think...I'm a h...hentai." Ryoga's nose started spurting blood, his eyes rolled into the back of his head and he passed out.

Kayley saw that Ryoga was slipping under the water and she cried out, "Ryoga!"

She lifted his head back out of the water so he could breath. She then dragged the unconcious Ryoga out of the tub, wrapped a towel around herself and, despite the distraction, Kayley chose to concentrate on waking him.

She patted his cheeks, no responce came so she decided to use a different method. She went to his left foot and rubbed on the part just below his toes. Soon Ryoga's left arm started to twitch uncomfortably, forcing him to wake up just to rub his arm.

At this moment, Ryoga was in very little position to talk, much less say anything coherent. So with his head against his head,he muttered, "Fanma, this is all your Rault."Kayley was afraid he might pass out again so she grabbed his shoulders and said, "Oh no you don't." She then slapped him across the face.

Now that Ryoga was awake, he begged, "Please don't tell Akane about me being P-Chan. She'll never forgive me."

Kayley reasurred him, "Don't worry. I won't tell anyone about your Jusenkyo curse."

Ryoga's eyes grew wide as he asked, "Do you have a curse too?"

Kayley shook her head and explained, I used to live in the Jusenkyo mountains." She added sullenly, "That's where Saffron lives as well."

For some reason, just hearing Saffron's name seened to infuriate Ryoga. He asked, "Has he been after you again?"

told him, "Yes, but it's nothing I can't handle. You know, I think he's trying to see how dangerous I am. Maybe you too."

Ryoga knew it was a touchy subject, but he had to ask, "Does it matter how strong you are?"

Kayley explained sadly, "No. It probably wouldn't make any difference. He knows that I am not strong enough to fight him."

Ryoga cautiously asked, "Is there any way to beat him?"

Kayley said, "Unless you can get him to use up all him his energy, but well, that's like saying you want to be circumsized."

Ryoga really wished she hadn't said that in his present condition. Kayley quickly apologized, "I'm sorry. I forgot where I was."

Ryoga changed the subject, "Hey, about Saffron." He took her hands and she felt how strong they were, and how comforting, 'If you're ever afraid that Saffron might hurt you. Just find me and I'll protect you."

This touching moment was interrupted by the appearance of the panda, Genma. He took in the scene. A completely naked Ryoga holding hands with a girl, Genma's only seen once before, dressed only in a towel. Now Genma was a "seen it all" guy, but even he wasn't prepared to see Ryoga naked, with a woman. He quickly shut the door again.

Ryoga knew he was going to hear it from Ranma when he found out, but it could be worse. Ryoga commented, "At least Nabiki didn't see. She'd extort us for everything we had."

Kayley's eyes grew wide as she asked in amazment, "Would she really do that?"

Ryoga looked down at himself, blushed, then asked, "Kayley, would you please splash me? I don't want anyone else to see me like this and my clothes and my pack are still in the auditorium, and I can't go out in a towel."

She thought to herself as she turned on the cold water, (Oh well. I guess it couldn't last forever.) She grabbed a hand full of water and splashed him. Ryoga once again became P-Chan.

P-Chan looked at Kayley and skweed at her, as if asking her to do something, but she didn't know what. So to give her the message, he went to her, put his front hoofs on her leg and tried to wag his curly-Q tail, kinda like a dog and skweed again. Kayley got the message. He wanted to know if they were still friends.

In responce, Kayley patted his head and even scratched behind his left ear. P-Chan heard Akane calling him. Kayley told him, "Go on, Akane's worried." P-Chan looked at her once more then ran to Akane. Kayley saw that her bathwater was ruined. She mumbled, "That blows that idea."

Later, in Akane's room Akane was asleep on her bed with P-Chan next to her. On the floor, Kayley was sleeping. She heard something very strange and her eyes flashed open. An older man suddenly crashed through her window. She knew the man, he was her teacher. Kayley cried out, "Ning Shao!" Ning Shao was a fairly tall man, with grey hair and a beard. He was wearing extravently decorated chinese clothes with gold dragons on them.

At the sound of Kayley's scream, P-Chan's ears perked up and within a little more than a second later, he was in front of Kayley. His short fur was standing on ends as the little pig growled at the intruder. P-Chan tried to attack the old man, but the old man had lightning quick reflexes and knocked the poor piggy against the wall. But if you know anything about P-Chan, you'd know he bounces like a rubber ball

So while P-Chan was going from one wall to another, Kayley was assessing the situation. Kayley had little chance of beating him in the best of enviroments, much less in such a small space. So in hopes of just outrunning him, she jumped out the window with Ning Shao after her.

Akane is never very alert when she wakes up, so she doesn't understand why Kayley's being chased by an old geezer and P-Chan's bouncing around like a ping-pong ball. Akane watched P-Chan bounce out the window after them. She yawned and said, "What a wierd dream."

She plopped back down on her pillow. Ranma ran into the room because he heard the noise. The room was totaled. Ranma went to wake Akane, but as a result of being a little too close, Akane slapped him silly.

P-Chan still had Kayley and Ning Shao in sight, but he couldn't help her as a pig. Then opportunity knocked.

He saw a public bath. He ran inside and found the men's bathing area and dived in. Ryoga quickly emerged and looked for some clothes. He spotted some that looked like they would dit him and put them on. Of course, he felt bad for the original owner, but this was an emergency.

Soon he ran out of the building with a nosebleed. You see, he accidently wandered into the women's locker room. He looked in the direction he had seen them running in and even though he knew she could not hear him, he cried out, "Kayley! I'm coming!"

Kayley had nowhere to go, now she had to fight. No matter what she did, she couldn't get rid of him. But she had to do something because she couldn't last musch longer. She moved in close, aimed her index and second finger for his throat. At the exact moment, Ning Shao threw a double axe chop toward her hips.

Ning Shao made contact first and with a cry of pain, Kayley fell to the ground. Every leg muscle ached and she was now helpless. The old man picked her up and threw her over his shoulder. As he started to walk off with her, an angry voice from behind stopped him, "Let her go!"

Ning Shao turned his head and looked at Ryoga as if he were a cockroach, Kayley desperately cried out, "Ryoga! Leave me! I don't want you to get hurt!"

Ryoga's fury wasn't simply because of the injustice being done to a young woman, but he had feelings for her. Even though these feelings were similar to those he had for Akane, they were somehow stronger. Ryoga knew in his heart that it was Ranma whom Akane loved, not him. However, Kayley knew about his curse and not only did she accept it, but after everything, she still wanted to be his friend. Around her, there was nothing to be ashamed about.

In any case, he was going to protect her with his life. he told Ning Shao, "I will not let you, Saffron or anyone else harm her again! Do you hear me!"

Ryoga attacked with a series of punches and kicks, being so careful not to hurt Kayley in the process. The old man showed his agility by evading the attacks with simple sidesteps. Ning Shao finally jumped back into his fighting stance. It was like a normal stance, except his index finger and middle finger were extended. He told Ryoga, "Now boy, it's time to die!"

Kayley knew exactly what Ning Shao was going to do. She screamed out, "Ryoga, listen to me! Just get away! You don't know what you're up against!"

Ryoga charged forward. Ning Shao attacked, aiming for Ryoga's heart. Reacting out of instinct alone, Ryoga tried to dodge to the right. Ning Shao's attack struck him just to the left of his heart. The affects of the attack was so sudden, Ryoga didn't know what happened. He let out a strangled cry of pain, then fell to the ground, unconscious.

An even more agonizing cry came from Kayley. For the first time in her life, blind fury consumed her entire soul. She's never hated anyone, not even Saffron but after what happened to Ryoga, Kayley lost any sympathy she might have had for Ning Shao. With inhuman strength, fueled by anger, she slammed an axe-chop into the very center of his back. Ning Shao fell to the ground.

Kayley pressed her thumb against the back of his neck to cut the circulation from his blood. When he finally passed out, Kayley dragged herself over to Ryoga. She desperately felt for a pulse on Ryofa's neck. Her eyes swelled with tears of joy, because not only did he have a pulse, it was strong and rythmic. Releasing so much supressed emotionsm, Kayley lowered her head into his shoulder while wrapping her arm around his neck gently and continued to cry.

At the same time, Ranma and Akane was getting close. Akane let out a gasp as she saw them. She yelled to Ranma, "Look, it's Ryoga and he's hurt!"

Ranma yelled back, "I knew she was trouble!"

Akane was watching and stopped Ranma, telling him, "Ranma, let's not jump to any conclusions. Let's just wait a minute."

Kayley had finally quit crying and raised into a sitting position next to him. She started to stroke Ryoga's long bangs as she sang to him softly.

* * *

For the person that reviewed me sorry I had the annonymous review disabled... Sorry, I didn't see it and thank you for the review. 


	3. Chapter 3

I don't own Rnama 1/2. WAHHH!

Ryoga's world was completely black. his head was throbbing and his ears were ringing. Soon he felt a comforting warmth from the soft strokes of a hand. Then soft echoes of a sweet song filled his head. Ryoga asked himself, (Am I dead? No, I'm not dead. My head, my body hurts. I wouldn't be feeling any pain if I were.) Still he thought the voice was angelic, soothing, yet sad and familiar.

Akane and Ranma walked over to them and Akane asked, "What happened? Is he all right?"

Kayley said, "Ryoga was trying to save me. He got hurt, but I think he'll be okay."

Ranma knew there was something about Kayley that kept rubbing him the wrong way and he was about to find out why. Kayley continued to stroke Ryoga's hair as she mumbled out loud, "This is all because of me. You would have never gotten hurt if I hadn't ran away from Saffron."

It totally clicked. Ranma grabbed the collar of Kayley's nightgown and threatened, "What do you know about Saffron! For your sake, you better have heard of him through the guide!"

Kayley wasn't in any mood to be interrogated in that manner. She gave Ranma "The look". Yes, you know what I'm talking about. It's the same look that can tick off your dad faster than anything else. It's also known as the EVIL EYE. After that, she reared back and slapped him across the face, actually knocking him backwards.

She then proceeded to let him have it verbally, "Listen, you Hentai! Since you know a little about Saffron, then try to imagine being enslaved by him and your only purpose is to be fuel for his powers."

Ranma was almost afraid to ask, "You mean you turn into a doll?"

Kayley looked at him like he was an idiot, "No, Baka! he doesn't drain the water from my body, However the method he uses is worse. It's not only painful, but it's embarrassing. Not only that, but Saffron takes more and more of my energy. Last time he drained me, he didn't leave me hardly any energy to survive on. He's completely power hungry. And what I'm afraid of is that I might not survive it the next time it happens.

She wanted to say more but she heard Ryoga moan, which meant that he would be waking up soon. Kayley quickly warned Ranma, "Don't you dare tell Ryoga how serious my situation is. I don't want him to get any more involved."

They turned back to Ryoga, who was finally coming too. Ryoga opened his eyes and was suprised to see Akane and Ranma and was glad to see that Kayley was safe. Even though he was courious about Ranma and Akane, his concern was for Kayley. He asked, "Are you alright?"

Kayley smiled and reasured, "I'm just fine. What about you? Does it still hurt?"

Ryoga tried to sit up, but his chest still hurt him so he layed back down. Kayley told Ranma and Akane, "Get Ryoga out of here. Take him to your house to recooperate."

When he heard this, Ryoga grabbed Kayley's hand and asked, "You're not coming with us?"

Kayley remembered that strong, yet gentle touch of Ryoga's hands. And even though she didn't want to let go, she had to.

She explained, "Ryoga, I can't go with you right now. My legs still aren't working right. Besides, Ning Shao could still be a problem. I've got to stay behind and take care of this problem."

Ryoga tightened his grip a little and he had a sad look on his face. Kayley smiled at him and said, "Don't worry, I'll make sure I don't get hurt, at least by him anyway."

Ranma and Akane each took one of Ryoga's arms and proceeded to take him back to the Dojo. And at the same time, Ryoga was trying to look back at Kayley, but he couldn't twist his neck around enough.

Meanwhile, Kayley dragged herself over to Ning Shao and cracked her knuckles. I'm not going to say exactly what she did, but let me put it this way. Ranma, Akane and Ryoga heard a loud crackc, then Ning Shao screaming. So come up with your own conclusions.

On their way back, Akane had been thinking about the way Ryoga and Kayley were acting aroud each other. She decided to talk to Ranma about it after Ryoga left.

Ranma goes into the living room, where Akane was sitting, alone. Or so they thought. As it so happens, Soun, Genma-panda, Kasumi and Nabiki were watching the conversation via a window. Soun was quietly rooting, "You can do it, Akane!"

Nabiki had a bet going with Genma, "Okay, Panda. $20 says they don't kiss."

Genma growled and held up a sign that said, 'You're on.'

Meanwhile, it seemed that the only one being sensible was Kasumi. She put her hands on her hips and asked, "Really! Must you always invade their privacy?"

Ranma plopped down next to Akane and asked in a bored tone, "Well, what did you want to see me about?"

Akane started, "It's about Ryoga and Kayley." ."Yeah, what about them?"

"Well...I know you don't like either of them, but..."

Ranma interrupted, "Hey, Ryoga wouldn't be so bad if he would calm down and forget about that stupid challenge."

"Okay, then. You don't like Kayley." She stopped and inquired, "Why are you so scared of her anyway?"

Ranma's pride was hurt and he defended it, "Hey! I'm not scared of her!"

"sure you're not. Anyway, did you notice the way they were looking at each other?"

"No. Why?"

"I think they're in love, but I don't think they know how the other feels."

"So? What does that have to do with me?"

"Listen, it's probably too late too ask you to be nice to Ryoga, but I do want you to be nice to Kayley."

Ranma didn't want to have to listen to this conversation, so he agreed, "Ok, ok, whatever you want."

Ranma then left the room. As he walked, he thought to himself, (I can't believe she wants me to be nice to that deathtrap. And what's her deal with Ryoga and Kayley? So what if they do like each other. Even if they do get together and become a couple, they'll still get lost every five seconds. I can just imagine it.)

He imagined a slightly older Ryoga with a slightly older Kayley walking into some unknown island village. A confused look is on Ryoga's face as he said, "Wait a second. This isn't our house. I'm sorry,honey, we seem to be lost."

Then Kayley replied in a sickenly sweet manner, "That's ok, Sweety, as long as we're together."

(Honey, Sweety?) Ranam thought discustingly as he walked toward his room. Nothing has made him THAT sick to his stomach since the last time Akane made him eat her cooking.

He looked out a window and saw Soun in one of his crying fits. Nabiki looked like she was yelling and Genma-panda. You see, you can't hear anything through a closed window. Genma had a nervous look on his face as he held up a sign that said, 'Uh, will you take an IOU?' And Kasumi had her arms crossed and looked at the pitiful group that stood before her.

About one week later, Pincipal Kuno, a man who is obsessed with the Hawaiian culture, calls the entire student body to the auditorium. Of course, no one was excited about the announcement, because it was never good news. Anyway's the pricipal says, "Hello my children. I give you jus' one week to come up wit' da wonder song, or you be cleaning da' toilets for a whole week."

"Well, that's just great! How are we supposed to come up with a song! None of us are songwriters!"

That's just the one acceptable thing that was said. Meanwhile, Ranma commented to a slightly annoyed Tatewaki Kuno, "Your dad had a wierd sense of humor."

Kuno noted, "You have no idea, Saotome."Kayley came up from behind Ranma and tapped him on the shoulder. Which scared him out of his wits. Kuno saw her and he was either completely braindead or has a terrible memory about the last time he hit on her. I' putting my money on being braindead. How about you? He said, "Ahh, my golden-haired goddess has returned to my arms with the intent on dating thee."

Kuno was next to a wall so Kayley pushed him against the wall with her left hand, and tippytoed to reach him. She pressed her right thumb against his adams apple. Now, she didn't press hard enough to hurt him, just get him to shut up. And even Kuno knew not to keep egging her on at this point.

Kayley told him, "I don't know about you, but I don't intend on cleaning the toilets. Now, considering that he was in Hawaii for three years, I know of a song that will be right up his alley. I'll even help you put it together, but I'm warning you, keep aggrevating me and I'll conveniently get myself lost for a whole week. Got it."

Kuno still didn't quite catch the drift, but at least he had enough sense to say, "You must concentrate on helping us, for I know that my offer is distracting."

Kayley let go of him and instructed to everybody, "ok, before we can do anything else, we need to get the school band together."

In abotu ten minutes, the band was found and Kayley started asking, "How many trumpet players do we have?" Three boys and two girls raised their hands."

"Does anyone play the Xylophone?" One girl raised her hand. "And I need drum and clarinet players."

One boy spoke up, "I play the drums."

And a couple of girls said that they played the clarinet. Kayley said that she would get them the sheet music tomorrow. Kayley said that she would hold an audition for singers this afternoon in the auditorium.

The same afternoon, and two agonizing hours of listening to 17 tone-deaf teenagers and only six sounded halfway good. After a lot of consideration, Kayley came back with her decision, "As wierd as it may sound, Ranma is going to sing the lead vocals." There were a lot of moans and groans, but she continued, "That's my decision. Oh, by the way, I've added a piano player to the band. Anyone who wants to help in any way is greatly appreciated. Backup singers will be announced by tomorrow at lunch and practice will be everyday, after school."

Okay, I'm not going to put you through the torture of describing in detail how practice wen, but let me say this. Between Kuno chasing some girl in the rafters and having to help Ranma everytime he sang off key, Kayley was about to scream. So let's just skip to the program.

The curtain rose with Ranma in front of the principal and everyone else. Needless to say, Ranma was nervous. But then, he saw Akane and there was no way he was going to let her know he was scared. So after taking a in a long, deep breath, he cued the band. The music started playing Carribian style. Oh, by the way. Anyone who has been on the internet or heard the Ranma 1/2 Fighting Songs CD might have heard the song, Chikyuu Ookestora A.K.A. Earth Orchestra. And the lyrics have been rewritten so you can sing along to it. I'm serious, you really can!

If you listen for it

Though it could be hard to hear

You might still hear those singing voices out there

In this one big city

That thing making that noise

Somehow I can't see it at all, anymore

Those voices that could never reach because their almost gone

And even if you try hard you could never

Find that clear beautiful song

Oh, wait just a second now

I hear a faint little sound

It'll continue as long as no one obstructs it

Hey, you! Did you know that you are

Also a single sound that is born on this world so

Let's go back, into that one beautiful sound

I still remember...

If you mark the rythm

With the rumbling mountains

You might can still see some of that beauty

It is the reounding

It is the vast and beautiful

The Earth Orchestra!

That song made Ranma feel like a complete jackass, but at least Principal Kuno seemed to like it. Once they were off the hook, Ranma got ahold of a couple of his friends while Akane got Kayley and they decided to eat a celebration meal at the Cat Cafe. Akane whispered to Ranma, "Are you sure you want to go there? You know your precious Shampoo will be there."

Ranma knew that tone and to his credit, he said, "Now wait a minute! I don't even like her!"

Shampoo gave her usual greeting, "Ranma! You come date Shampoo?"

Ranma wave his arms as if trying to say no, but within seconds, Shampoo ran to him and hugged him enthusiastically. Meanwhile, growling sounds could be faintly heard by Kayley. She turned in the direction it came from and saw Akane preparing to slowly pull out an over sized mallet. I have no idea where she puts those things. Do you?

Shampoo finally noticed Akane and gave her a dark look before she asked, "Why she must be here?"

Kayley knew exactly where this was headed for so she changed the subject, "So I hear that the food's really good here. Let's find a seat."

Well that calmed things down a bit as Shampoo started to take their orders, "What you have?"

After everybody's orders were taken, Kayley said, "I've got to go to the bathroom."

Akane announced, "I'll go with you."

Ranma commented, "Why do girls have to go running off everywhere with another girl. It's embarrassing. I mean, you won't find a guy doing somthing like that, would you?"

His friends agreed, "you got THAT right Ranma."

From the kitchen, they heard a man yelling. Ryoga pops out of the kitchen with Mousse yelling at him, "How did you get in here! You're worse than a tourist!"

Ranma watched with amusement while Ryoga scratches his head and, in an attempt to find the front door, he walks right into a closet. Kayley and Akane came back. Akane eyes Ranma suspiciously Before asking, "What's so funny?"

Ranma continues to snicker as he lied, "Oh, nothing."

Kayley was skating on the local ice rink as she saw a familiar face. Ryoga was asking directions. No doubt he was trying to find the Tendo Dojo. Kayley skated up to him and greeted him quite warmly, "Hi, Ryoga. I haven't seen you in quite a while."

Ryoga noticed that Kayley was wearing a pretty lavender skating leotard with delicate ruffles of it. Ryoga was taken aback, "Wow! You're beautiful, Kayley."

She blushed at the compliment, then asked, "C'mon, why don't you skate with me?"

Ryoga stuttered with embarrassment, "Oh, n...no. You d...don't want to skate with me. I don't really know how "

Kayley frowned a little but still insisted, "I don't care if you can skate or square dance. I missed you."

She blushed after she said that because she didn't want him to know that, but it was too late. What's said was said. Ryoga finally agreed and Kayley went slowly and helped him when she could. Pretty soon, Ryoga was actually skating on his own.

When she felt sure that Ryoga was comfortable enough on the ice, Kayley took his hands and urged him to skate closer to her. After a little while, Kayley smiled at him and said, "Watch this."

She began to skate backwards. Obviously being a show off. Before she knew it, she had hit a small crack in the ice and started to fall. Swift arms caught her by the waist and lifted her completely off the ice. She turned to see who had help her. She knew it wasn't Ryoga, because he was right in front of her. She saw a young man with brown hair. This strange man asked in a calm lulling voice, "And where was your undeserving partner, he who would let such a delicate flower fall to the ground?"

Kayley quickly pulled away and said sternly, "Excuse me, but I don't know you."

Ryoga skated up and asked, "Are you alright, Kayley?"

She nodded. Ryoga recognized the man and heard a child-like cry, "Charlotte!"

It was the Golden Pair: Mikado Sanzenin and Azusa Shiratori. Ryoga really hoped he would never see those two again. But at least he was more prepared and Akane wasn't there if he did get splashed, so there was that less to worry about.

Mikad gave out the introductions and then proceeded to glorify himself, while at the same time insulting poor Ryoga, "My flower. Why don't you leave this lout for a real skater? You too have a wonderful talent."

THis time, Kayley was more blunt, "No thank you! I'm happy skating with Ryoga!"

Mikado tried to take herhand but Ryoga slapped his away from her saying, "Didn't you hear what she said! Leave her alone!"

Mikado grinned and announced, "I challenge you to another skating match. The prize is the flower, Kayley "

Azusa cried happily, "Ooo, this sounds like fun!"

Ryoga yelled, "Kayley is not something to be wagered! But I'm not going to give you the opportunity to kiss her! Tomorrow night! Right here! Kayley and I, against you two!"

With that said and done, Kayley told him, "Well, if you're serious, you'd better sleep on my couch so we won't have to go looking for each other."

That night, they got home by taxi. Kayley looked at it and sighed, "Home sweet home." Yeah, I know it's an old joke, but I couldn't come up with anything better.

once inside the house, Kayley proceeded to fix Ryoga's bed. Meanwhile, Ryoga was starting to feel ashamed because he had gotten her into a competition without so much as asking. He apologized, "I'm sorry I got you into this mess."

She finished fixing his bed then told him, "Don't let it bother you. I couldn't take him coming on to me like that and something had to be done." Then she added absently, "I'm kinda glad it happened."

Ryoga didn't seem to hear her last comment, but he looked around. He asked, "Where did you get the money to buy this house?"

Kayley told him, "Well, I have a job that I work three or four nights a week and I'm a translator that charges by the word. It's actually helped me get a pretty big bank account. Now go to sleep. We'll take care of our costumes tomorrow."

The next morning, Kayley woke Ryoga and led him to her kitchen. He some good food and saw bacon, eggs, and biscuits. Ryoga looked at her and asked, "What? Why did you cook me breakfast?"

She knew he wasn't trying to insult her, so she smiled and said, "We've got a big day ahead of us. I just wanted you to eat good."

Ryoga ate well, except he never did touch the bacon. Gee, I wonder why? After breakfast, Ryoga and Kayley took a cab to the costume shop, where they were shown all the different types of outfits they could wear. More than an hour later, they came out with two bagged outfits that they haven't shown each other. They had four ways to go: North, South, East, and West. You can see where there would be a problem for those two. Kayley started to go to the right. Ryoga grabbed her wrist and pointed out that the ice rink was in the other direction. Then he himself started to walkback into the clothing store. Kayley rolled her eyes, grabbed Ryoga's sleave and yelled, "TAXI!"

In the woman's dressing room, Azusa was aggrevating Kayley. She said, "Wittle Azusa will soon get her wittle Charlotte back."

Kayley looked at her strangely and asked, "Who the heck is Charlotte?"

Azusa explained, "That man with the bandana is my pet piggy, Charlotte."

Kayley thought a moment, (I know that Ryoga uses his curse to become Akane's pet P-Chan.) She knew that was the only way he could be close to Akane. Kayley also had a good idea that this wierdo was someone he did NOT want to get close to. Kayley laughed at her and said, "Boy an\re you living in a dreamworld. Do you honestly think that Ryoga would stay with you? Man, you and your partner are definately two of a kind."

Azusa took it as a challenge, "Are you getting jealous? Well then, whoever wins gets to keep Charlotte."

Somehow just hearing one of Ryoga's nicknames infuriated Kayley. She shouted out, "Are you stupid! His name is Ryoga! Not Charlotte or P-Chan, Ryoga!"

Azusa must've had rocks for brains, because she asked, "Are you mad?"

In the men's dressing room, Mikado was doing everything he could to enrage Ryoga before the fight. He started out with the comment, "I hope you were,'t very close to my flower? Because I intend to steal a kiss from her."

Ryoga glared at him a minute before he spoke, "Don't you think that she has the right to kiss whoever she wants?"

Mikado smirked and said, "How could she resist me. Especially with the competition being the likes of you?"

Ryoga's eyes darkened as the comment went right through him. He growled out a threat, "I swear I will NOT let you kiss her."

Mikado's continued smile only served to enrage him further, and he said, "We shall see."

The ice rink filled up quickly and Hiroshi and Daisuke were seen homemade GO KAYLEY banners that they were waving around. How in the world do they find out about this stuff anyways? The lights go off and a single spotlight flashed on. An announcer said, "Welcome to what promises to be an exciting match as the Golden Pair take on Ryoga Hibiki and Kayley Ryne."

Mikado and Azusa came out opposite ends and wowed the crowd with a sycrinized triple spin. They ended their entrance with Mikado lifting Azusa over her head.

Now it was Ryoga and Kayley's turn. They too appeared from opposite sides, but they did something different. Kayley skated towards Ryoga, then jumped into the air right to him. With one arm, he caught her knee and balanced her over his head. That really drove the crowd wild.

When Ryoga set her down, he had enough time to notice what she was wearing. She had a white, satin, evening gown that was slit up the side for easier movement. He just stood there for a long moment until she gave his hand a squeeze, bringing him back to reality.

She, too had to admit that he was very handsome wearing a white, button down, silk, shirt and somewhat loose pants. She asked, "Are you ready for this?" Ryoga simply nodded.

The Golden Pair didn't give them any time to get comfortable before they attacked. Mikado threw Azusa at them, but Kayley purposely slipped under her and slid towards Mikado. Ryoga wasn't as fortunate. Azusa managed to knee him in the stomach. Luckily, thanks to his breaking point training, it didn't cause as much damage as it could have. Ryoga huffed a few times before he caught his breath and said confidently, "Is that all you got?"

Azusa said, "Ooh, you're cuter and stronger now, Charrlote."

Meanwhile, Kayley continued to slide until she was two feet away frowm Mikado. She attempted to kick him, but he caught her foot. Agily, he flipped her up in the air and caught her on the way down.

Kayley seened very disoriented, so Mikado found his opportunity to move in. As his face closed in on her's, she let out a small screech and kicked her way out of his arms.

When Ryoga saw him holding her, he started to get very angry. Of course, Ryoga's angry was a normal persons fury. So, while Kayley was putting some distance between her and Mikado. Ryoga was attempting to beat the crap out of Miakdo.

Azusa decided to join the fight. She kicked Ryoga at the bend of the knee and he fell forward. She got on the ground next to him, hugging and saying, "Charrlote."

Kayley saw this and her blood boiled. Going at ramming speed, she yelled, "Get away from him, ya hussy!"

This scared Azusa off, but Kayley wasn't paying attention to the ice and fell. She was next to Ryoga now, and she felt Ryoga's hand grab hers. But Azusa grabbed Ryoga's leg and mikado grabbed Azusa's, and lifted all three into the air and started spinning them around.

Ryoga had delt with this before, it was the Great Couple Cleaver. But Kayley had not. She squirmed hysterically and Ryoga was starting to lose his grip. He yelled, "Stop struggling! I won't be able to hold on!"

Kayley's eyes were full of terror as she screamed, "I'm scared of hieghts!"

She closed her eyes tightly and Ryoga knew that he had to do something. He squeezed his legs together just enough for Azusa to have trouble breathing. Her face started to turn blue as she cried out, "Ooh, I can't hold on anymore." And she let go.

Ryoga saw that they were going to hit the wall and Kayley was about to taks the most of the impact. Without thinking, he pulled her close to himself and whirled around to where his back faced the wall. When they crashed, Ryoga let out a grunt of pain. Kayley saw that his protective grip was still as tight, so she knew he was still conscious. He seemed to be able to move around and talk. The first thing he said was, "Are you okay?"

Mikado came to them and said, "What kind of man are you?"

His pride was hurt by that remark, so Ryoga slowly rose to his feet and growled, "Don't you ever say that in front of her! Do you hear me!"

This is quite a mess. Don't you think? Ryoga was chasing Mikado up and down the rink, while Kayley and Azusa started getting into a catfight.

Ryoga finally cought Mikado, lofted him over his head, and threw him into the rafters. Mikado easily grabbed one of them and stood on it. Meanwhile, Azusa somehow tripped Kayley and started swinging her around by her feet.

Azusa finally let go and sent Kayley flying towards Mikado. He caught her and kept her up there with him. Once again, Kayley's acraphobia kicked in and she started to panic. No matter how hard she kicked, he wouldn't let go. She saw how high she was and passed out.

Ryoga saw her up with Mikado and demanded, "Let her go NOW!"

Mikado asked, "You fought once before for Akane Tendo, now you fight for her? Decide on which one you love. Do nothing and Kayley is mine, but continue and give up on Akane."

This was the hardest thing he's ever had to do. In the past, he didn't htink about whether or not he was trying in vain to win Akane's heart or not. But at this moment, he realized that more than his feelings for Akane, he wanted Kayley safe and near him. He started skating towards Azusa and jumped at her.

Out of reflex, she caught him and catapulted him to Mikado. He kneed Mikado in the face, which forced him to drop Kayley. Ryoga jumped down after her, caught her and landed safely. She came out of her passing out spell and said, "Thank you, Ryoga." And like a bolt of lightning, she kissed him on the lips.

By now they were both on their feet. Ryoga instinctively put his arms around her. Mikado saw this and raged, "NO! HOW COULD YOU!" He aimed his blades right at Ryoga. But a fold-up chair whacked him on the head and he fell unconcious.

Azusa was screaming at the unmoving body, "I won't let you hurt my wittle Charlotte!"

That ended the fight. Ryoga and Kayley were named the winners and then they kissed again. I was going to add something to that, but it was WAY too sappy. How sappy was it? Well, there's not enough trees in Montana that could hold that much sap.

Almost two weeks go by without any word from Ryoga and everythings been pretty peaceful. Ranma-chan was outside practicing, when she heard, "Ranma."

She turned around and got into her fighting stance. She saw Ryoga standing twenty feet from her. She rolled her eyes and asked, "What is it now, Ryoga?"

Without losing any seriousness, he said, "Akane's yours."

Completely shocked, she asked, "W...what? You mean you're giving up on her?" Ranma-chan joked, "I guessyou finally figured out what a mule she is?"

Ryoga told her angrily, "You better be good to her, Ranma!"

She responed, "Uh-huh, right. So why the change of heart? I thought you loved her?"

His expression grew a bit softer as he said, "I...I found someone else. Listen, tell Akane, if she starts to worry about her pet pig, that...tell her not to worry about P-Chan."

Ranma-cahan wasn't really paying attention to what Ryoga was saying. She was still trying to get over the "I found someone else" part. Then she got an idea of who this someone else was and she cried out, "Ryoga, wait!"

By that time, Ryoga had already walked off and couldn't hear. Ranma-chan watched Ryoga's diminishing figure in silence. At the same time she thought, (Oh, Ryoga. What have you gotten yourself into?)  
  
  


Oh my god Ranma sang. The worlds ending! Just kidding. Haha! I'm adding a bunch of chapters at once so you don't have to wait. Enjoy and Review.


	4. Chapter 4

I don't own rnma 1/2.

Two days later, it was Akane's birthday and she wanted a birthday cake, but her father and Mr. Saotome had other ideas. Soun said, "You know Saotome, what more perfect way for Akane to celebrate her birthday than with a date with Ranma?"

Genma remarked, "You're absolutely right Tendo."

Unfortunately, Ranma and Akane weren't happy about what they heard. Akane cried, "Dad!"

At the same time, Ranma was getting majorly pissed at Genma, "Yo, Pop! What's the big idea!"

Genma's excuse was, "It's your duty, as Akane's fiancée, to show her a good time on her birthday."

Both Ranma and Akane rolled their eyes and sarcastically said, "Oh, great."

So both Soun and Genma started pushing their children out of the house with Soun saying, "Now I want you kids to have fun and don't come home till at least 9:00." Then the door slammed behind them."

Akane started up, "This is just great! I have to spend the evening with the biggest jerk in all Nerima!"

Ranma replied, "Oh, look who's talking? Do you think I want to go on a date with someone so uncute?"

"Why you," Akane screamed as she tried to whack Ranma with her purse!

Ranma sis a good job of dodging her until he saw someone. BAM! Ranma took a direct blow to the head. Ranma cried, "Oww! That hurt, you know!"

But Akane wasn't paying attention to him. She was starting to see the same person he was. Walking about 30 feet ahead of them was Ryoga. He had a piece of paper in his hand and he turned his head from side to side, as if confused about where to go. Does that suprise you? He turned around when he heard Ranma's voice, waved at them and called out, "Ranma, Akane!"

Akane motioned for Ryoga to come over and he did. Akane smiled and asked, "Ryoga, what's going on?"

Ranma, even though he heard Ryoga renounce his love for Akane, expected Ryoga to be trying to impress her. But he acted as if he was totally uninterested by simply asking, "Do you know where the Gambling King's Casino and Karaoke Club is? I'm trying to find it."

Ranma looked at him strangely and exclaimed, "What are you doing going to a casino! You're to young to gamble!"

Ryoga looked at him questionly and stated calmly, "Who said anything about gambling? Kayley works there."

Ranma asked, "Going to visit her, hmm?"

Akane had a sudden thought, "Hey, since Ryoga's looking for this place anyway. Why don't we yust go there too?" She asked, "Ryoga, can we come with you?"

He answered, "Sure, that's fine with me."

Ranma kept his eyes on Ryoga for 2 reasons; 1.) He was afraid that Ryoga might be eyeing Akane. He still can't believe Ryoga would give up on her so easily. 2.) Ryoga has a horrendous sense of direction. Without close supervision, Ryoga was bound to get lost. So after having to steer Ryoga back in the right direction three times, Ranma was dragging him along.

Akane noticed that Ryoga was constantly staring at a piece of paper in his hands. She asked, "Ryoga, what are you looking at?"

Ryoga said, "It's a letter from Kayley."

Akane took the paper and read;

Ryoga:

I got a job working at The Gambling King's Casino and Karaoke Club. I would really like you to come and visit me.

Kayley

Kayley smirked and handed it back to Ryoga and said, "I guess you've finally told her how you feel."

A...Akane. How did you...I mean...did Kayley...?"

Akane gigled and explained, "No, no, Ryoga, she didn't tell. I saw those looks you gave each other. Besides, girls know this kind of stuff."

Ryoga simply said, "Oh."

When they got there, it was almost 8:00. The Casino was very bright and very loud. On the casino end, they could hear kachinging sounds from the slot machines. On the Karaoke side, music blared from inside. Ryoga commented, "This is a lot like Los Vegas."

Ranma thought to himself as they entered the Karaoke side, "Man, Ryoga. Where HAVEN'T you been?"

They saw that Kayley was busy conducting music. Ranma whispered to Akane, "So, that's how she was able to do that song."

No sooner does the song end, then a girl named Tsubasa, the very thorn in Ukyo's side, taps Kayley on the shoulder. For those of you who aren't familiar with her. She is actually a boy who likes to crossdress as a girl. She requested a certain song that they didn't have a cd for, so they had to play it manually. As the music started, Tsubasa, in a slight and energetic tone, announced, "I'll sing Red Poppy. And this is for my Ukyo-sama and Akane-chan."

Her voice suddenly got really deep as she sang only the first word, before she got gonged.

When she had a chance to take a break, Kayley saw Ryoga, Ranma and Akane. She waved and ran straight to Ryoga. They hugged each other as Kayley said happily, "I'm so glad you made it."

She led them to an empty table and finally acknowledged Ranma and Akane, "Hey, what are you two doing here?"

Ranma spoke up, "We saw Ryoga and SHE," pointing to Akane, "decided that we should come here."

Kayley teased, "So I guess this is a double date."

Ranma piped, "ME! Date her! Get real!"

Akane was ready to belt Ranma, screaming, "What does THAT mean?"

Ryoga rolled his eyes and commented to Kayley, "They'll never make it as a married couple."

Kayley smiled at Ryoga and said, "Actually, I think they make a perfect couple."

This made Ryoga wonder, (Do girls really know this stuff?)

Akane whispered something about being bored and Kayley whispered back. Then all of a sudden Akane asked, "Ryoga, why don't you sing something for us?"

Kayley's eyes lit up as she begged, "Oh, yes! Please! I want to here how you sound."

Ryoga looked at her like he didn't want to, but then he noticed how excited Kayley was. That look was all it took. Ryoga smiled and said, "Alright."

Now nervous isn't the word for how Ryoga was feeling. Panic was more like it. Even so, he walked on stage and was instantly frozen by fear.Kayley decided to give him a confidence boost. She walked up on stage to him and said, "Ryoga, all you have to do is close your eyes and drown out everybody else from your mind." He did that, "Now, all you have to do is think about what you want to sing." She gave him a kiss on the cheek and walked back to her seat.

Ryoga was much calmer noe. He went over to the musicians to talk about a song and one of them held up a cd with the song he requested. He announced, "I am Ryoga Hibiki and I will sing Present." For those of you who know this song, it is the Ryoga image song from the Kakutou Kauruta cd. You can also sing along to this one too. The music began and he sang:

Oh, please accept My Song

It's just a very tiny PRESENT for you now

To you I give I Love You

I hear the alarm clock ringing

I see the morning light is brightly shinging in

And the sparrows are flying and singing their happy little song

What a feeling!

I hear our voices overlap, here in our hearts, in this one place

Isn't it just great!

Oh, please accept My Song

It's just a very little PRESENT for you

Oh, please accept My Song

It's just A very tiny PRESENT for you now

To you I give I Love You

Even Ranma had to admit that Ryoga was pretty good. Akane's jaw flapped open because she didn't believe he was the type that could sing. Kayley was just proud of him.

Ryoga made his way back to the table and Kayley ordered them food and colas. As they waited, Ranma asked, "What in the worl are we doing in a casino? The three of us aren't even 18."

Kayley explained, "Well, you see that man over there?" She pointed to a man with dirty blonde hair, a thick beard and a funky top hat. She continued, "He owns this place. Now you can't gamble anywhere, if you're not 21, except at his table. He lets anyone with money and a gambling habit play him."

Akane asked increduously, "Isn't that illegal!"

Kayley laughed and mentioned, "According to him, it's not." She whispered to Akane, "Can you get rid of the boys for a little bit? I want to ask you some stuff."

Akane turned to Ranma and bluntly requested, "Amscray!"

Kayley gently asked, "Ryoga, Honey, could you and Ranma go Karaoke for a while? Akane and I have to talk."

Meanwhile, Ranma griped, "Excuse me!"

"You heard me. Beat it, before I splash you!"

Ranma didn't want everyone and their dog to find out about his curse and he sure wasn't about to give Ryoga the chance to tease him. He grabbed Ryoga's sleave and grumbled all the way to the stage.

Now that they were free to talk, Kayley asked, "You've known Ryoga longer than I have. Could you tell me why he has risked his life for me? I don't understand why he has been so good to me."

Akane looked at Kayley strangely, but then she thought, (well, I guess if I was without a friend for so long, I wouldn't understand either.)

She thought for a moment before she spoke, "Well, Ryoga is kind and protective by nature. But with you it's different. He loves you and when someone's in love, they want to protect that person because they don't want to lose them. You love Ryoga, don't you?"

Kayley replied, "Yes, of course."

Then Akane continued, "Well, if the time ever came, would you risk your life for him?"

Kayley didn't respond. She had never thought about it before. Thankfully, a distraction kept her from answering. Up on stage, Ranma and Ryoga were gonged in the middle of a song. At first they started blaming each other for messing up the song. Then they started calling each other names that shouldn't be repeated in a polite conversation.

Akane rolled her eyes and commented, "Don't those two ever quit fighting?"

Ranma said something about Ryoga acting like a pig and that got Ryoga really mad. He grabbed the nearest glass of cold water and raised it threateningly at Ranma, while saying, "You wanna apologize?"

Akane saw a flicker of anger in Kayley's eyes a split-second before she threw a fork at them. The fork jammed itself into the wall right between Ranma and Ryoga. They both turn toward their attacker just before she barked, "Stopit! Both of you! You're martial artists, not little children!" She turned and walked off.

Akane called out as she followed, "Wait for me." This left Ranma and Ryoga rather embarrassed.

"Kayley! Stop! Wait for me," Akane called out! Kayley let her catch up. Akane asked, "You were a bit rough on them. They are boys after all." No offense to all male readers, but that is usually how a girl will respond.

Kayley said, "Maybe, but they don't have to be constantly fighting and make a fool out of themselves."

Akane put her hand on Kayley's shoulder and said, "Let's go check on the boys. Who knows what they might have gotten into."

A moment later, heard Ryoga cry out, "Oh, no!"

They saw Ryoga handing over all his and Ranma's money while Ranma slapped him on the back of the head gripeing, "'I know how to play this game,' You said. 'Don't worry,' You said."

Ryoga turned back to Ranma as the Gambling King happily took their money. Ryoga complained, "I said I knew this game. I didn't say I was very good."

Kayley came up to them and asked, "What's going on here?"

The Gambling King said, "HA!HA! Nice doing buisiness with you."

Ranma commented angrily, "More like we were given the business."

Akane broke in, "I can't believe you're so stupid, Ranma. Do you have any money left?"

Ryoga answered for him, "Sorry, Akane. He took all our money."

Kayley clapped her hand to her head and mumbled, "Oh, man. I can't believe..." She then sat down where Ryoga was.

Ryoga asked, "Uh, Kayley. What are you doing?"

Kayley was a bit annoyed, so it was no suprise that she was snappy, "I'm trying toget your money back."

The Gambling King asked, "HA!HA! What will it be, Missy?"

Kayley decided to lay down the law, "Okay, here are the rules. We play one game of Poker. If I win, I get all the money back that Ranma and Ryoga lost."

The Gambling King asked, "And what if I win?"

Kayley answered calmly, "You get the deed to my house."

Ryoga exclaimed, "No, Kayley! Don't bet your home over $150!"

Kayley told him, "Ryoga, when dealing with an expert gambler. You must be willing to up the stakes." She turned back to the Gambling King and told him, "Alright, deal."

He smiled and said, "I like your attitude, but you'll still lose."

The Gambling King started flicking out cards and all the while, Kayley was carefully watching him until he was finished. She did something strange then. She turned her head to the left to where she could only see out of the corner of her eye. After careful consideration, she threw away 3 cards.

Now the Gambling King thought he was being sneaky. He tried to slink his hand toward a different pack of cards, but a fist whizzed toward his hand and slammed into the table just in front of his hand. Shocked, he stared at his opponent. Kayley, who was in the exact position, responded, "You've got a perfectly good deck in front of you. Use it!"

Ryoga had been watching the entire thing, and not once did she look away from her cards. Or did she? He couldn't help but think, (What is she doing?)

The Gambling King plopped down his 2 cards and then tried to reach into his pocket, but Kayley snapped, "Don't even think about it, Pal."

He grumbled as he got his cards from the appropriate deck. When he looked at his new hand, he laughed and showed it, saying, "I have 3 kings."

Kayley smirked as she told him, "Heh, I've got a Royal Flush. So hand over that $150."

Ranma and Ryoga split their money, offly enough, Ryoga had $100.l As he counted his money, Akane watched, dumbfoundedly, "Where did you get all that money, Ryoga?"

Something you should know is that Ryoga's dad is a wealthy businessman. No joke. Have you seen Ryoga's house? It's very nice. So therefore, Ryoga is actually well off. He said, "I got it out of a ATM machine." He showed them his ATM card.

Akane said, "Thank you for helping the boys. Isn't that right, Ranma?"

Ranma sort of grumbled his thank you and Akane smackex him on the back of the head. I guess he still doesn't trust Kayley. Ryoga also gave his heartfelt thanks and Akane asked, "Is there anything we can do for you?"

Kayley asked, "Well, it's late. Could I...Have some company going home." So they all agreed.

As they left the casino, Kayleycasually put her arm around Ryoga's and smiled. Ryoga asked, "You're not mad?"

She said, "Well,to be candid, I was a bit annoyed. But everyone makes mistakes and they learn from them."

Akane heard Ranma comment, "I don't get her. One minute she's really mad, the next she's not."

Akane didn't really have an answer for that question. (Maybe she's the forgiving type,) She thought.

Akane decided to make casual conversation, "Kayley, I hear you've been to alot of places. Which one is your favorite?"

kayley sighed, "Oh, that would have to be Colorado. Imagine a place where the water is like a mirror. The air is so sweet and the ground is saturated with gold."

Akane sighed, "Oh, wow! I want to go there."

Meanwhile, Ranma snickered, "Give me a break. GAAK!"

Akane had just belted Ranma over the head with a mallet. Where does she get those things? More importantly, where does she keep them? She screamed, "You insensitive jerk!"

Ryoga shook his head and raised it again to find something unusual. He brought it to Kayley's attention, "Hey, look! Something's on fire."

Kayley saw what Ryoga was looking at and cried out, "Oh, no! My house!"

Kayley was running as fast as she could with Ryoga and the others following closely behind. It was just as Kayley thought. her house was on fire.

When the others caught up to her, she was in a total state of shock. Ryoga put his hand on her shoulder and said, "kayley?" She slowly turned around to face him and he asked, "Are you okay?"

kayley's eyes swelled with tears as she wrapped her arms around Ryoga and cried miserably. Ryoga tried to comfort her in a soothing tone. Just when she was starting to calm down, Ryoga heard a whizzing sound just before Kayley let out a gasp and quickly fell limp. Ryoga saw a dart stuck in her back.

He saw a strange young man appear in front of the burning house. Ranma and Ryoga both felt a powerfull, evil ki from within him. Ryoga quickly set Kayley out of the way, then he and Ranma quickly got into their fighting stances. Without turnign his head, Ranma told Akane, "Akane you better get out of here."

Now Akane thought that Ranma was saying that she would be in the way, but that wasn't the case. As I mentioned earlier, Ryoga wasn't stupid. Ryoga deiced to use reverse psycology, "Akane, I really need you to Take care of Kayley. Pleas?"

Akane nodded and ran over to Kayley. Meanwhile, the man demanded, "Give the girl back. her master is impatient and wants her back."

Akane said, "Master! Kayley is a person, not a pet. If she belongs to anyone, she belongs to Ryoga."

The man objected, "That's where you are mistaken, young woman."

He started towards Akane and Kayley and Ranma leaped at the man, yelling, "Oh, no you don't!" he then proceeded to use his Chestnut Fist against him, but the man easily evaded the punches. The man roundhoused Ranma, knocking him into the ground.

Ryoga knew right away that this man was trouble by the was he easily took out Ranma. So Ryoga had to find a wayto defeat him and fast. Then he saw his opportunity. He jumped over the man and managed a midair roundhouse, knocking him into Kayley's shed. That was the only thing of hers that wasn't on fire. He then yelled, "Bakusai Tenketsu!" He aimed his index finger at the shed and jumped over the man.

As Ryoga's finger hit the shed, the whole thing exploded. Ryoga made a quick rebound while the shed colasped on the man.

Ranma was composed again so while Ryoga was picking up Kayley, Ranma said, "Akane, let's get out of her! Now!"

Normally, Akane would have popped off to Ranma, but under the circumstances, she didn't argue.

As they ran, Kayley was slowly acting like the dart was trying to wear off. Akane, meanwhile, commented sadly, 'This is horrible. I can't believe someone would burn her home."

Then Ranma cynically added, "Believe it, Akane. There are cruel people out there capable of anything."

Ryoga got to thinking, (I've got a home. I can't find it most of the time, but at least I know I've got it. Dear Kayley has lost everything. I've got to do something.)

Kayley was slightly more alert now, so Ryoga made a decision. He told her, "Kayley, you're coming to stay with me. I'll take care of you from now on."

Kayley's brain was so fogged up, she didn't really know what Ryoga was saying. She only knew that she could hear his comforting voice. So she simply smiled.

Ranma and Akane exchanged worried glances and Akane ran forward to Ryoga and asked, "Ryoga, don't you think that Kayley needs to stay in school?"

Ryoga said, "Yeah, I guess so. But how is she gonna survive without a place to live?"

Akane knew that Ryoga was right so she offered, "She's gonna stay at my house."

Ranma literally blew a gasket, "She's NOT staying with us!"

Akane retorted, "You're going to let her stay or Nabiki will find out that you flirted with Kuno when you were trying to get him to shave his head." For those of you who don't recognize the reference. Read the manga issue titled "One Hairy Day."

Ranma shook in horror. A fight with an evil Oni, that he could handle. Staring down death, that was fine by him. But Nabiki, information in her hands meant almost certain humiliation or bankruptcy. Whichever came first. So Ranma grumbled out his permission.

Several times, Ranma would have to go after Ryoga, because he would take wrondg turns until finally, Ranma was getting pretty mad. Ryoga was still carrying Kayley because she was still really out of it. The last straw for Ranma was when he, and Akane took a left and Ryoga started to take a right. Ranma grabbed Ryoga's arm and Kayley slipped out of his hands.

Luckily, Ryoga was able to catch her before she hit the ground. Ryoga made sure Kayley was okay before his anger turned to Ranma, "Don't EVER do that again!"

Ranma involentarily stepped backwards. He could feel Ryoga's overwhelming anger, not only anger, but sadness as well. Ranma knew Ryoga was prone to bouts of depression, but this was different, more harsh. Akane must have sensed the same thing because she begged, "Please forgive Ranma. He wasn't trying to hurt Kayley but it's been a long day."

Ryoga added, "It's been even longer for her." He turned to address Ranma, "Kayley told me that you hate her and I don't know why. She just helped us get our money back. She helped your entire school keep from cleaning toilets. She even forgave you for that bathroom incident. What has she done to you?"

It was true, he did hate her. But he had to ask himself why. Was it because of her connection to Saffron? Or was it because she knows a technique that could take down even the strongest of men?

Instead of answering, he started to stare at his feet. The rest of the way they remained deathly quiet.

At the dojo, Ryoga layed Kayley on a cot that Akane had made. When he started to get up, he felt a tug at his sleave. She was awake, but obviously very upset as she begged, "Ryoga, don't go. Don't leave me."

Ryoga really didn't want to leave her, but he didn't think he could stay, "Kayley, I really don't think that Ranma will..."

At that very moment, Ranma interrupted him, "Ryoga, there's no use in sending you you away this late at night. I think that there's a spare room you can use for tonight."

Ryoga's eyes became thoughtful. He would never admit it to Ranma, but he was grateful to him at that moment. As Ranma and Akane left to give them some privacy, Ryoga layed next to her and said, "I'll stay right here till you fall asleep."

Kayley smiled as she tried to go to sleep and whispered, "I love you so much, Ryoga."

After she finally went to sleep Ryoga, fearing that if he wasn't guided to his room that hr would get lost, made sure Kayley was warm then fell asleep next to her with his cheek touching her's.

  
  
How touching but will they be able to live happily ever after?


	5. Chapter 5

I don't own Rnam 1/2. I don't own Ryoga either. Whahhh!

The next morning,Ranma thinks about the conversation he had with Ryoga moments before he got lost again. Ryoga had told him, "Ranma, I want you to do something for me."

Annoyed, Ranma asked with an exasperated sigh, "What is it, Ryoga?"

Ryoga's eyes became hard, as if the words he wanted to say disgusting, "I want you to protect Kayley for me."

Ranma's eyes went wide from suprise. He couldn't believe what he heard. The request was made with such importance, that Ranma knew that it wasn't a joke. Ranma asked, "Why me? You hate me, right? Then why would you ask me to do that?"

Ryoga responded, "I've never really hated you, Ranma. To tell you the truth, I think it was envy." His eyes went from hard as stone, to a soft thoughtfulness, "Listen Ranma, you're the best martial artist I know. And Kayley is just so precious to me. Because of my sense of direction, I can't bea able to make sure she's safe every moment. At least, not now. I need to know that she'll be protected. And I know that you can do it."

Ranma understood. He understood, because he would want Akane safe, if he was ever in a position of being unable to be there for here. Besides, Ranma knew that Ryoga had a real reason to worry. So he agreed, "Alright, Ryoga. I'll watch her for you."

A smile crept upon Ryoga's face as he said, "I thank you, Ranma."

Nabiki was chewing on the end of her pencil that say day, in class. She was a bit upset when she heard the news about Kayley, but she didn't let it get her totally down, "Another freeloader. Now, how can I profit from this?"

Suddenly, Kuno walks in with a dislocated shoulder, and he was in too much pain to talk. One of the girls came up to him and asked, "Let me guess, you were trying to date Kayley again, right?"

Painfully, Kuno responded, "GACK!" Which translates to, yes.

Then, it came to Nabiki, "Bingo!"

The end of the school day came and Ranma, Akane, and Kayley were walking together. When they came to a fork in the road, Kayley started to go in the wrong direction butRanma stopped her, "Where do you think you're going?"

She lood at him and started to say, "Why, I'm going..."Then the realization finally hit her as she finished her comment sadly, "H...Home."

Akane shook her head as she thought to herself, (Poor Kayley.)

That night, Kayley decided to take a shower. It had been rough on her today. She had to figure out where to get new clothes. She wanted to find another place to live soon. But most of all, she missed Ryoga. These thoughts led to be very distracting. After Kuno glomped on to her, she gave him more serious injuries than usual. Right now, all she wanted to do was relax.

She just finished rinsing her hair when she heard a click. She turned and saw that the door was partially open. Out in the hall, Nabiki walked back into her room, with a camera in her hand. She allowed herself a chance to whisper, "Gotcha!"

As Kayley entered the school ground, two days laterm she noticed the guys were flocking around her dressed in Karate Gi's, Hockey masks and such. In the midst of this mob was Tatewaki Kuno, who spoke, "Here, gentlemen, is a prize worth fighting for."

There was an uneasy calm, then the entire group shouted in unison, "I love you, Kayley!" That was just before they attacked her.

About 10 minutes later, all but Kuno lay unconsious. Why only 10? Well, Kayley did a good job of beating up the boys, but those who tried to hit her in the face, Kuno would start beating them up saying, "How dare you try to hurt the lovely Kayley! Now you shall feel my wrath!" Now there was only two combatants.

Kuno said, "I, Tatewaki Kuno, the Blue Thunder of Furinkan High shall prove myself worthy of dating with thee. En Garde!"

Kuno, at his best, is only an average fighter. So Kayley ended the fight pretty quickly. All she did was trip him and lace her thumb on the center of his neck, where the spinal cord is. And he passed out. All she did was cut the circulation going into his brain causing a temporary brain shut-down.

The Next Day...

The same scenerio as before, except Kayley doesn't use her pressure point technique on Kuno, just her fists. She leaves Kuno battered on the ground. Quite a mess.

The Day After That...

Kuno stood his ground. His face was wrapper up like a mummy and his eyes were fierce. Kayley told him, "Apparently, me hospitalizing you didn't give you the hint that I don't like you. Ranma and Akane told me what was going on, but I got news for you, I'm already in love with someone!"

Kuno started fumming, "Who is it! Who has stolen you from me!" Then he was reduced to wild, and ridiculous guesses, "It was that fiend, Saotome! He has entranced you, just as he has entranced the fair Akane and the pig-tailed goddess! This Venomous Slime! This worst of enimies..."

Kayley just waled off, leaving Kuno to continue to rant. During thrid period, Kayley heard Kuno continue to rant. By now, his insults have gone from moderate to, Oops, that would change our stories rating.

Later, Kayley saw Kuno confronting Ranma about her. Ranma reacted, "You've got to be joking."

Kuno shouted, "It's no joke! Now you pay!"

There was a flurry of punches. Ranma had the upper hand of the battle, but Kuno was hanging in there. During the fight, Kayley saw something ficker out of Kuno's pocket and fall to the ground. She picked it up and saw that it was a photo of her, in the shower.

She turned pale. She was so embarrassed. How could this Hentai have a picture of her, like that? Her eyes swelled up with tears as she stopped the fight, "STOP! How did you get this! No! Why do you have it!"

She slammed the picture to the ground so both Ranma and Kuno can see. Kayley started to cry. She then turned and ran. She didn't know she was going, nor did she care. All she wanted to do was escape this humiliation.

An hour later, she was still crying and still running. She ran completely outof Nerima before she literally ran into Ryoga. When she realized it was him, she wrapped her arms around him and started crying even harder. Ryoga asked with concern, "What happened? Was it Saffron? Why wasn't Ranma there?"

She shook her head and said, "It's not that..." She didn't want him to know what really happened, so she just continued to cry.

When she finally exhausted herself, she fell asleep on Ryoga's shoulder. A little later, both Ryoga and Kayley were asleep. Ryoga had his arms around her protectively.

The next day, Kayley and Ryoga were trying to find the Tendo Dojo, but even between the both of them, they couldn't even find Nerima.

"Which way are we going, Ryoga?"

"Umm...This way, I think. No, that way."

Do you have a compass?"

"I'm afraid not."

Oh, great."

"Hey, look! A sign. It's says, 'Welcome to Okinowa?'"

Gawd! Where's a taxi When you need one?"

A the same time, another couple came out from the bushes and they were in the same predicument as Kayley and Ryoga.

"U, Honey. THis isn't our house."

"Get off my back, woman. So it isn't. So what?"

"If you had let me ask for directions, we would have been home a month ago."

"Yeah, yeah, yeah."

Ryoga recognized their voices, "Mom, Dad, is that you?" Sure enough, it was. Ryoga's mom had long, black hair and a pretty, youthful face. She was wearing a green dress too. Ryoga's dad also had black hair, much like Ryoga's and wore a black business suit with a yellow and black spotted tie.

Ryoga's mother asked, "Ryoga, Honey. What are you doing here?"

His dad cut in, "He's getting lost. Same as us. Hey, who's your friend, Son?"

Ryoga took Kayley's hand as he introduced her, "This is Kayley Ryne."

Kayley shook their hands and she commented about Ryoga's mom, "I see Ryoga has your eyes." ANd then to his dad, "Wow! I can see where Ryoga gets his good looks." It was true. Ryoga's dad was a handsome man.

Ryoga's dad gave his son an energetic punch on the shoulder, chuckled and said, "You did good, Ryoga. She's a real winner."

His mother added, "Yes, dear, she's very sweet. How long have you been dating?"

Ryoga was suprised, "How did you know?"

She said, "I'm your mother. I can tell when my boy's in love."

While everyone was talking, Ryoga's dad took out his cellular phone. Meanwhile, Ryoga asked his mother, "You know, Mom. All four of us have a hard time getting around."

His mom explained, "Well, Honey. I'm not suprised. All Hibiki's are attracted to people who also have directional problem. It's been like that since the first Hibiki."

Ryoga's dad quickly got off the phone and told his wife, "We gotta hurry, Honey, our flight leaves in 5 hours." One thing about Ryoga's dad is that he does give himself enough time to get somewhere.

Ryoga's mom said, "We better go, Sweety, but it was so good to see you again."

His dad gave Ryoga a quick heart-to-heart, "Now, Son. You take good care of her. You hear? She's a good one. She'll be good to you. I know it." Then they left.

5 hours later...

Mister and Mrs. Hibiki made the plane at the Okinowa Airport. Mr. Hibiki took his seat, while Mrs. Hibiki went to check her makeup. The stewardess announced where they were headed and Mr. Hibiki's eyes grew wide. When Mrs. Hibiki returned, her husbad had an embarrassed look on his face. When she asked what was wrong, he replied, "Uh, how's your German?"

At the Tendo Dojo, Ranma was doing his best to explain what had happened the other day, "And then she just freaked out."

Akane said, "I think Nabiki went too far this time."

"But what I don't get is why she got so upset over a picture?"

"Listen, Ranma. When someonelike Kuno has a picture like that of a girl, that girl tends to feel embarrassed. Now, I've never minded Kuno having pictures of me because they were never improper. And it just never bothered you because, even as a female, you still have a male's modesty. But Kayley is very modest about that."

"Yeah, but when I saw Kayley...well, you know...but she didn't react like that. She just threatened to kill me."

"But, Ranma, she knew it was an accident. That's why she let it go so easily."

Ranma finally admitted, "I guess it wasn't fair of me to hate her."

Nabiki chose that moment to walk in on the conversation. Both Ranma and Akane stared at her coldly. Nabiki said, "Oh, come on. She'll get over it. They all do." Then she walked off.

Kayley decided to cook up a good meal for Ryoga. You see, they found a small store and bought some beef, potatoes, and carrots. So she made a stew.

He became teary-eyed as he watched her fill his plate. Ryoga was so happy to have her cooking for her. And he didn't have to give her fake compliments, like he did with Akane.

That night, Kayley was trying to sleep, but the air was much too cold for her. She looked up to see Ryoga comfortably watching the stars. She walked over to him and he saw that she was freezing. He had her sit next to him and he, once again, wrapped his arms around her. Kayley felt his warmth go into her body and she soon quit shivering.

Early the next morning, Ryoga woke with a start. He felt a powerful, terrorfying presence nearby. He woke Kayley and whispered, "Wake up please. You've got to hide."

They saw a large patch of bushes and rushed into them. Frightened, Kayley asked, "Ryoga, what's going on?"

He said, "I think it's Saffron. You mean you can't sense him?"

She shook her head no. It had never occured to him that Saffron might not want her to know how to sense him. Ryoga said, "Stay low. If it is Saffron, I'll lead him away. What does he look like?"

She said, "He may look about our age and he'll have white hair."

Ryoga asked, "May?"

Kayley ignored the question but begged, "Ryoga please, you might get killed. Just stay here!"

Ryoga told her sensibly, "If we stay here, that just makes us sitting ducks." Ryoga felt him coming closer, so he quickly left.

Saffron was with two of his finest men. He complained, "You said you saw them here! Where are they!"

A man in blue, chinese robes bowed and said, "Master, they were here earlier. So they must still be nearby."

Saffron ordered them both, "Flush them out!"

The man in blue and a man in red robes pulled out swords that could slice through anything. Hmm, do you think they were trained by the same person who trained Mousse? Ryoga was up a tree, watching the two slashing bushes and trees until they came close to the bush Kayley was hiding in. He jumped down and shouted, "Come get me!" And he ran off.

Catch him, but don't kill him. Bring him to me." The ran after Ryoga.

Ryoga ran as fast as he could, but he came across a stream that he couldn't jump. He turned and faced his predators. Just by looking at them, Ryoga knew that he was stronger. But he had no idea of their skill. They attacked first.

Speed was deinately their forte as every punch connected, but thanks to Ryoga's training, he could easily withstand them. And his punches were like getting hit with a brick.

In a fair fight, the two men would be easily out-classed by Ryoga. But this was far from a fair fight. They jumped into the air and attacked him with various projectile weapons, which were only distractions for the real attack.

Chinese bombs flew at Ryoga's in such precise locations, that he couldn't avoid them. One of them exploded at his feet and sent him flying for several feet, incapacitating him.

They returned, each carrying Ryoga by his arms. Saffron smiled with approval. Then he called out, "Where are you woman! I have your boyfriend. Return to me and I will release him."

Kayley did everything she could to keep from crying. She had no idea whether or not Saffron could or even would keep such a promise. Plus, she was nowhere near powerful enough to beat him.

Saffron knew that he could get her back easier by keeping Ryoga alive, and he knew that she was aware of this fact as well. He offered, "Come to the Jusenkyo Mountains and I will let him go in exchange for you. Until then." They dissapeared, leaving Kayley alone.

She crawled out and started asking herself, fracntically, "What do I do now?" Then a thought came to her, (Ranma and Akane.)

  
  
  
What has Ryoga gotten himself into and can Kayley help him? Find out next time.


	6. Chapter 6

I don't own Ranma 1/2.

Two days later at the Tendo Dojo, Shampoo came storming in, screaming, "Nihao, Ranma!" She then started hugging him, much to Akane's anger.

Behind Shampoo, her Great-grandmother came into view saying, "Well, Son-in-law. Have you decided to marry Shampoo?"

Finally getting a breath of air, Ranma was in girl-form, by the way, she said, "Old ghoul. What are you doing here?"

At that moment, the door opened once again and Kayley stumbled through. She hasn't slept in two days. She was exhausted from her travel, but somehow she found the strength to make it here.

Akane asked, "Kayley, what's wrong?"

Kayley's knees buckled as she said, "R...Ryoga's been kidnapped...by Saffron." She reached out for Ranma-chan, her plea was desperate, "Please...help him." Kayley calapsed at Ranma's feet.

They examined Kayley until they realized that she wasn't injured, only fatigued. Akane said, "We have to help Ryoga."

Ranma-chan said, "For once you're right, Akane. Saffron can kill, even someone like Ryoga."

Cologne spoke up, "It is foolish to face Saffron. His power is much too strong."

Akane said, "But he's our friend. We have to help him."

Ranma-chan added, "Besides, it would be dishonorable to abandon a fellow warrior." It was true that Ranma and Ryoga held true to Bushido. (way of the warrior) That means that honor demands that warriors take care of each other in times like this.

Akane pointed out, "We can't forget Kayley. Ranma, you probably know where Saffron would be keeping Ryoga, but I don't think it would be right to leave her behind."

Cologne added, "Besides, if Saffron saw that that girl wasn't with you, he'd kill Ryoga for sure."Ranma-chan nodded in agreeance, "Well, then. We'll leave after she wakes up."

An entire day later...

Cologne was there to see Ranma, Akane and Kayley off, "Now you be careful, Son-in-law. Saffron is an opponent in which skill alone cannot combat."

Kaqyley had her hiking suit on. A button-down, sleaveless shirt and hiking pants. She asked Cologne, "Is there any way to beat him?"

The old woman responded, "Well, only someone who can truly fight with their heart, has a chance of winning."

Kayley didn't really know what she meant so she turned to Ranma and Akane and told them, "We better take a plane. I think I have enough money for us, but one of you will have to lead the way."

6 hours later, the three were walking up a cliff overlooking the cursed springs of Jusenkyo. Ranma kept looking down and accidentaly let slip, "I wonder which one is Nannichuan?"

Akane griped, "Why don't I push you over the edge and we can find out!"

Kayley's Acrophobia was starting to kick in again so she begged, "Please, don't fight. I don't think I can take it."

They both aid, "Sorry."

When they arrived at the cave, the one where Saffron usually holds his ceremonies. They entered and after a little way, they started hearing voices. As they got closer, they saw that Ryoga was tied in chains and was sitting on the ground. Saffron seemed to be answering something Ryoga had said, "Oh, she'll come alright. She would follow you to the earth and you know it."

Akane must have bumped something, because there was a clanging sound next to her. Saffron raised his head in their direction and asked, "Who's there? Is that you,girl?"

Ranma whispered, "You stay here." He boldly strode out into the open and asked, "And what if she is?"

Ranma and Saffron attacked each other. However, Ranma's speed wasn't any help as Saffron knocked him into a wall with incredible force. Akane impulsively ran to Ranma. But she, herself, was knocked to the side. Saffron started to attack her with an energy blast, but Ranma intervened. He jumped in front of her and used his body to shield her. This, in turn, cause him to take the full force of the attack. Akane cried out, "Ranma, no!" Even Ryoga shouted out his concern.

Ranma's knees buckled as he weakly asked, "Akane, are you okay?"

Saffron prepared to blast them again, but Kayley had had enough. One way, or another, she was going to get her friends out of danger. She ran in front of the two and exclaimed, "Stop, Saffron!"

Saffron did, indeed stop. He said calmly, almost casually, "Well, you've finally came out into the open."

kayley offered, "Saffron, if you let Ryoga, Ranma and Akane go, I'll never try to runaway again."

Ryoga squirmed, trying to free himself, but it was useless. He yelled, "No Kayley! Don't do it!"

What Ryoga said seemed to surprise Saffron a little, "Wha... Is that what you call yourself? HaHaHa!"

Ryoga looked at him coldly as he asked, "What do you mean?"

Saffron answered, "I mean, she doesn't have a legal name. She was born and raised to provide me with energy since my sword can be very inexcessable."

Ryoga shouted angrily, "You're lying! She wasn't born to serve your purposes?"

Saffron smiled and said, "Show them the symbol."

Kayley closed her eyes, as if ashamed about what she was about to do. She unbottoned her shirt just enough to show a low neck line. A burned outline of a phoenix was visable. Still embarrassed, she explained, "Whenever I'm this close to Saffron, his mark appears on me. It doesn't hurt, but still, I've been branded by this mark so I am his property. Please forgive me.

Saffron boasted, "So you see, Ryoga, even if she runsaway, she can't deny her fate forever."

Ryoga snarled, "You can't treat her like that! You're nothing but an animal!"

Kayley turned to Saffron and asked, "So, do we have a deal?"

Saffron stated, "Agreed."Kayley told Ranma and Akane, "Get those chains off him and don't let him come after me." She turned to Saffron, "I want to give him just one last goodbye."

Kayley walked over to Ryoga, who was now unchained, and for a second, she paused. At that moment, Ryoga begged, "Kayley, don't do this. Escape with Ranma and Akane."

She stroked his cheek and said, as bravely as she could, "Don't make this any harder than it already is. There's no other way. If I did run, he would kill you and then kill Ranma and Akane to get to me. This is all I can do for you."

Kayley kissed him. It was passionate enough, yet Ryoga could sense other things about it. At first, he could feel her sadness. He knew that she didn't want it this way. Then it changed. His body slowly grew warmer and at the smae time, he felt Kayley's skin grow cold. Then Ryoga realized what she was doing. She was transfering her ki into his body. The Ryoga struggled, the more she would hold him. Soon the heat was so intense that his blood burned with her ki. When the kiss ended, Kayley looked the same, except for her eyes. Her eyes were very dull, they almost had a dead look to them.

Ryoga once again pleaded with her, "Kayley, you can't do this. Please?"

Kayley asked, "Ranma, Akane. Please?"

They both ran to Ryoga. Ranma tried to hold him back, whil Akane was trying to calm him down. Kayley had to turn away. His face was so full of dispair and she couldn't bare to see him like that.

Kayley walked over to Saffron, fully prepared for what was coming. Without so much as a word, Saffron placed his hands on her shoulders and closed his eyes. An ugly, red aura formed around him. Then it spread around Kayley, slowly taking the shape of flames. In very little time, Saffron realized that she didn't have the sufficient amount of energy he needed and she was almost dead. He threw her down in disgust.

Ryoga watched her hit the ground and he just went berserk. He pulled away from Ranma and plunged headlong into Saffron, knocking him away from Kayley. Ryoga's raged blinded him from the fact that brute strength was no good against Saffron. Ryoga suddenly felt a jolt of electricity surge through his body that sent him flying against the wall. Saffron grabbed Ryoga's throat with the intent of choking him.

By this time, Akane had reached Kayley and was checking her pulse. Despite his own situation, Ryoga turned his eye, looking at Kayley.

Akane said sorrowfully, "Ryoga, I'm sorry. It's not good."

As Saffron squeezed tighter, Ryoga closed his eyes. He knew that Kayley might be dying and for a brief moment, Ryoga thought about giving in to Saffron. Then he remembered how she helped him. Through every trial together, even now she had tried to save him. He knew that if he loved her, he couldn't give up.

Ryoga grabbed Saffron's wrists and used his emense strength to pry Saffron's fingers from around his neck. Saffron seemed suprised at Ryoga's renewed strength, but he wasn't worried. Heh, he should be.

You see, Ryoga is a man who had lead a very lonely life. As you know, his whole family has severe ditrectional problems. So that time a few days ago was the first time in three years he had seen his parents. There was emptiness in his life until Kayley came along.

Ryoga started saying, "You monster! You had put her through sheer hell for years. Now I may lose my reason to live because of you! Saffron, for once you will feel my pain!"

Ryoga outstretched his hands and a ball of blue energy started to form. Even when he closed his eyes, Ryoga could still see Kayley lying on the ground, so vey weak. Tears streamed as he screamed, "Shishi Hokodam! Ahhhh!"

A massive burst of energy surged through Ryoga's body, gathered itself into the already powerful energy ball, then he released it. Saffron tried to defend himself but he just wasn't powerful enough. The blast connected, using up all of Saffron's energy. With all his energy gone, Saffron turned into a baby.

The attack left Ryoga a liitle weak, but still he went to Kayley. He kneel to hold her in his arms. Kayley's breathing was ragged and getting weaker. Ryoga started repeating, "It'll be all right, Kayley."

Behind Akane, Ranma stood watching Ryoga, trying to console the one he love, even though he knew she couldn't hear him. Ranma's eyes showed an unspoken sympathy for Ryoga. He walked over to Ryoga and put his hand on his shoulder. Ryoga looked solemly at Ranma and Ranma told him, "If there's a way to help, the Guide will know."

Ryoga picked up Kayley and walked off. Ranma and Akane followed.

Strangely enough, Ryoga was just too upset to even get lost. When they arrived, the guide immediately made Ryoga lay her on a cot and he said, "Aiyaa, she lucky you bring here. I know special remedy for her." He went to the fridge and pulled out a can.

Ranma blurted out, "What's with the can? Don't tell me that's your miracle cure?"

The Jusenkyo Guide acted a bit annoyed, then said, "This no ordinalry can." He showed it to them and it turned out to be a can of chocolate flavored Boost.

Ranma, Ryoga and Akane's eyes went wide. Ryoga gacked in astonishment. He was trusting Kayley's survival in a diet drink?

Ten minutes after she took it, Kayley's breathing returned to normal and Ryoga was holding her hand. Thirty minutes later, Kayley was much better and Ryoga was still by her side. Sometime later, Kayley finally woke up. She was still too weak to lift her head, but she turned her head to the right and saw Ryoga holding her had even in his sleep. She smiled and gave his hand a squeeze. He woke and was so excited to see that she was all right.

He got on his knees and told her, "I was so worried that I would lose you. Why did you take such an awfull risk?"

She said, "I knew that Saffron wouldn't keep his promise and he just wasn't as powerfull as he could be. I had to use that as an advantage, even at my own exspense."

Ryoga got a little closer and whispered to her, "Don't do that again, okay?"

Kayley smiled and said teasingly, "I'll try, but I can't make any promises." Ryoga, himself, smiled and kissed her.

Meanwhile, Akane had been watching. She sighed and said, "How romantic."

Ranma heard her and said, "At last, you are starting to act like a girl."

Akane snapped back, "Well, maybe if you'd treat me like Ryoga treats her, I might act like one!"

Ranma was flabbergasted, "W...W...What do you mean?"

Akane seemed embarrassed as she said, "I, um, never mind."

End of part one.

Coming soon, Ranma discovers that he's not an only child and this man wants revenge. Also, we all knew that Ryoga's sense of direction was horrible, but wait till you see some of the places he ends up THIS TIME. All this and more on Part 2 of Ranma's Alternative Saga.


	7. Chapter 7

I don't own Ryoga or Ranma 1/2.

A man, about 19 years old, was heading straight for Nerima. Strangely enough, he had a remarkable resemblance to Ranma, except his hair was longer, brown and pulled back in a rubber band.

He trudged through the freshly made puddles as he spat out, "You will pay for this, Genma!" Meanwhile, a little black pig slowly walked toward him. As he walked past it, he noticed it had a yellow bandanna with small, black squares scattered on it.

"Get away from me," Kayley screamed! Yup! She's back in school and once again, she was being chased by the school idiot, Tatewaki Kuno.

Kuno ran after her asking, "My love, why are you so angry?"

Kayley spun around and grabbed the shirt of his kendo outfit and shouted, "Listen Baka! If I've told you once, I've told you a thousand times! I already have a boyfriend!" As she said this, she kicked him in the stomach and a punch in the jaw sent Kuno into low orbit.

Akane and Ranma came up to her. Ranma complimented, "Wow! I see Ryoga's taught you some tricks."

after the Saffron incident, Ranma had completely gotten over being angry at her, and she still lives at the dojo while she's in school. She can't go cross-country with Ryoga. Believe me, she would if she could. Nabiki still takes pictures of her and sells them to Kuno, Kayley can't stop that, but at least she has stopped her from taking pictures too out of the way. Whoo! That's a lot of talking.

And that pretty much brings us up to date. As Ranma, Akane and Kayley walked off, Kuno landed with a thud.

When they arrived home, a very short and very old man with a scarf tied to his nose, or something like that with a bag full of something, rampaged through the house. The old man skidded to a halt in front of them and was staring at Kayley.

A bit annoyed at this strange man's behavior, she barked, "What! What are you staring at!"

He asked with excitement, "Hiya, cutie! How about I treat you to a hot fudged sundae?"

Akane punched him through a nearby window saying, "How about you don't!"

Confused, Kayley asked, "What was that?"

Ranma said in a manner, like it was an everyday occurrence, "That was Happosai. The resident freak and a major hentai."

Kayley asked, "Well, if he's THAT big of a problem, why don't you just trash him, Ranma? He doesn't seem tough."

He responded, "Oh, you don't know how energetic that little freak is."

A split second later, Happosai busted through the same window and just started clinging to Kayley. True, she was really annoyed at this twerp, but she kept her cool. She pried him off and turned him toward her and told him, "You better listen, and listen good. Do that again and I'll give you a lesson in the meaning of pain."

Happosai begged, "Oh, come on. How could you deny this frail, old, man such a simple request?"

She wasn't falling for it, "It seems you're not taking me seriously enough." She squeezed both shoulder blades. Both Ranma and Akane had never heard him wail that loudly. Before she dropped him she said, "That was your warning."

As Ranma, Akane and Kayley walked off, Ranma asked, "Do you think Kasumi will make Suiyaki tonight?"

Kayley asked, "Hmm, never ate that before. Maybe I'll like it."

Kasumi Tendo was just finishing her shopping. Carrying bread, vegetables, and other miscellaneous groceries. She was having a hard time seeing where she was going.

She accidentally bumped into a man and dropped her bags. When he spoke, his voice was fairly deep, but it had a soft tone to it, "Gomen-nasai."

Kasumi looked at him and spoke the first thing in her mind, "Ranma, what are you doing here!" On further inspection, she knew it wasn't Ranma, but he sure looked a lot like him. Kasumi, polite as always, bowed and begged, "Please forgive me. I thought…"

The young man stopped her, "You don't have to apol…" At that point, something clicked, "Did you say Ranma? As in, Ranma Saotome?"

She answered as he picked up her groceries, "Why, yes. Are you a friend of his?"

He handed her her groceries and asked, "Not exactly. Nee! If I carry your groceries, will you let me see him again?"

Kasumi smiled, "What a nice young man. Hai! Ranma and his Uncle Saotome are living with us. Will you stay for dinner?"

The young man said, "Arigatou! What's your name?"

She answered, "My name's Kasumi Tendo. What's yours?"

He said, "I'm Kyote."

Over the next half-hour, Kasumi and Kyote talked. One particularly strange topic was Kyote giving her a recipe for beef stew. She found it very odd for him to know so much about cooking.

When they got to the Tendo home, they could hear Ranma and Akane arguing again. Kasumi called out, "Ranma, Akane! I'm home!"

Kayley came in from another room and started excitedly, "Kasumi! Welcome…back?"

Right in front of Kayley was a man that looked just like Ranma, but she sensed something odd about him. Remember in Part 1, I told you that Saffron wouldn't let her learn to sense Ki's. Well, that isn't the type of sensing I mean. She could tell, by the way his his fingers gently, delicately, touched the palm of his hands. It was almost feminine.

Without caring who the girl was, Kyote asked, "Where is Ranma Saotome?"

Kayley yelled down the hall, in the direction of the arguing, "Oi! Ranma! Company!"

Ranma popped into the room and came face to face with an almost mirror image of himself. Kyote gave him no time to be amazed, "Ranma Saotome! As the true heir Saotome School of Indiscriminate Grappling, I challenge you! First though, where is Genma!"

As if he had made a wish, Genma came through the door with Soun. Kyote grew extremely violent as he attacked, screaming, "Genma Saotome! Get ready to die!"

His skill easily allowed him to beat Genma to a pulp. As angry as he was, Kyote probably would have killed Genma, if Ranma hadn't interfered. He kicked Kyote out of the way.

Ranma saw that Kyote's anger was so intense, tears formed as his face flushed bright red. Ranma stood between Kyote and his father. He asked Genma, "Pop! What did you do to this man to make him so mad!"

Genma was completely confused, "I don't know, Ranma! I've never seen him before!"

Kyote's fists shook as he shouted, "He stole my inheritance from me! Now I'm gonna take my revenge on the both of you!"

By now, Ranma was starting to get angry. He yelled, "Who are you to barge in here and challenge me!"

Kyote smiled, "Fair enough. I am Kyote Saotome. The eldest child of the Saotome family."

Ranma went into shock, "You're my…older brother? How can that be? I'm an only child."

Kyote's head jerked towards Genma, "So, you lied to him. This makes things different. But, I'm still gonna claim what is rightfully mine. I will give you one month to train. Then we will fight." Without a word, he walked out of the dojo.

Genma got to thinking. (Kyote? That's the name of my daughter. Why is he using her name?)

Meanwhile, Ranma was worried. He thought, (If he could take out Pop so easily, then I don't stand a chance.

  
  
  
I'd like to thank Princess-elli100 Well here comes what I have of part 2 so far... and I'm glad you thought it was funny. I wanted some humor in this story.

And to Ryan L. Spradling ACK! There's a response I've never seen before. Hehe!

Please enjoy and review.


	8. Chapter 8

I don't own Ranma 1/2, Rumiko Takahashi does.

A man, about 19 years old, was heading straight for Nerima. Strangely enough, he had a remarkable resemblance to Ranma, except his hair was longer, brown and pulled back in a rubber band.

He trudged through the freshly made puddles as he spat out, "You will pay for this, Genma!" Meanwhile, a little black pig slowly walked toward him. As he walked past it, he noticed it had a yellow bandanna with small, black squares scattered on it.

"Get away from me," Kayley screamed! Yup! She's back in school and once again, she was being chased by the school idiot, Tatewaki Kuno.

Kuno ran after her asking, "My love, why are you so angry?"

Kayley spun around and grabbed the shirt of his kendo outfit and shouted, "Listen Baka! If I've told you once, I've told you a thousand times! I already have a boyfriend!" As she said this, she kicked him in the stomach and a punch in the jaw sent Kuno into low orbit.

Akane and Ranma came up to her. Ranma complimented, "Wow! I see Ryoga's taught you some tricks."

after the Saffron incident, Ranma had completely gotten over being angry at her, and she still lives at the dojo while she's in school. She can't go cross-country with Ryoga. Believe me, she would if she could. Nabiki still takes pictures of her and sells them to Kuno, Kayley can't stop that, but at least she has stopped her from taking pictures too out of the way. Whoo! That's a lot of talking.

And that pretty much brings us up to date. As Ranma, Akane and Kayley walked off, Kuno landed with a thud.

When they arrived home, a very short and very old man with a scarf tied to his nose, or something like that with a bag full of something, rampaged through the house. The old man skidded to a halt in front of them and was staring at Kayley.

A bit annoyed at this strange man's behavior, she barked, "What! What are you staring at!"

He asked with excitement, "Hiya, cutie! How about I treat you to a hot fudged sundae?"

Akane punched him through a nearby window saying, "How about you don't!"

Confused, Kayley asked, "What was that?"

Ranma said in a manner, like it was an everyday occurrence, "That was Happosai. The resident freak and a major hentai."

Kayley asked, "Well, if he's THAT big of a problem, why don't you just trash him, Ranma? He doesn't seem tough."

He responded, "Oh, you don't know how energetic that little freak is."

A split second later, Happosai busted through the same window and just started clinging to Kayley. True, she was really annoyed at this twerp, but she kept her cool. She pried him off and turned him toward her and told him, "You better listen, and listen good. Do that again and I'll give you a lesson in the meaning of pain."

Happosai begged, "Oh, come on. How could you deny this frail, old, man such a simple request?"

She wasn't falling for it, "It seems you're not taking me seriously enough." She squeezed both shoulder blades. Both Ranma and Akane had never heard him wail that loudly. Before she dropped him she said, "That was your warning."

As Ranma, Akane and Kayley walked off, Ranma asked, "Do you think Kasumi will make Suiyaki tonight?"

Kayley asked, "Hmm, never ate that before. Maybe I'll like it."

Kasumi Tendo was just finishing her shopping. Carrying bread, vegetables, and other miscellaneous groceries. She was having a hard time seeing where she was going.

She accidentally bumped into a man and dropped her bags. When he spoke, his voice was fairly deep, but it had a soft tone to it, "Gomen-nasai."

Kasumi looked at him and spoke the first thing in her mind, "Ranma, what are you doing here!" On further inspection, she knew it wasn't Ranma, but he sure looked a lot like him. Kasumi, polite as always, bowed and begged, "Please forgive me. I thought…"

The young man stopped her, "You don't have to apol…" At that point, something clicked, "Did you say Ranma? As in, Ranma Saotome?"

She answered as he picked up her groceries, "Why, yes. Are you a friend of his?"

He handed her her groceries and asked, "Not exactly. Nee! If I carry your groceries, will you let me see him again?"

Kasumi smiled, "What a nice young man. Hai! Ranma and his Uncle Saotome are living with us. Will you stay for dinner?"

The young man said, "Arigatou! What's your name?"

She answered, "My name's Kasumi Tendo. What's yours?"

He said, "I'm Kyote."

Over the next half-hour, Kasumi and Kyote talked. One particularly strange topic was Kyote giving her a recipe for beef stew. She found it very odd for him to know so much about cooking.

When they got to the Tendo home, they could hear Ranma and Akane arguing again. Kasumi called out, "Ranma, Akane! I'm home!"

Kayley came in from another room and started excitedly, "Kasumi! Welcome…back?"

Right in front of Kayley was a man that looked just like Ranma, but she sensed something odd about him. Remember in Part 1, I told you that Saffron wouldn't let her learn to sense Ki's. Well, that isn't the type of sensing I mean. She could tell, by the way his his fingers gently, delicately, touched the palm of his hands. It was almost feminine.

Without caring who the girl was, Kyote asked, "Where is Ranma Saotome?"

Kayley yelled down the hall, in the direction of the arguing, "Oi! Ranma! Company!"

Ranma popped into the room and came face to face with an almost mirror image of himself. Kyote gave him no time to be amazed, "Ranma Saotome! As the true heir Saotome School of Indiscriminate Grappling, I challenge you! First though, where is Genma!"

As if he had made a wish, Genma came through the door with Soun. Kyote grew extremely violent as he attacked, screaming, "Genma Saotome! Get ready to die!"

His skill easily allowed him to beat Genma to a pulp. As angry as he was, Kyote probably would have killed Genma, if Ranma hadn't interfered. He kicked Kyote out of the way.

Ranma saw that Kyote's anger was so intense, tears formed as his face flushed bright red. Ranma stood between Kyote and his father. He asked Genma, "Pop! What did you do to this man to make him so mad!"

Genma was completely confused, "I don't know, Ranma! I've never seen him before!"

Kyote's fists shook as he shouted, "He stole my inheritance from me! Now I'm gonna take my revenge on the both of you!"

By now, Ranma was starting to get angry. He yelled, "Who are you to barge in here and challenge me!"

Kyote smiled, "Fair enough. I am Kyote Saotome. The eldest child of the Saotome family."

Ranma went into shock, "You're my…older brother? How can that be? I'm an only child."

Kyote's head jerked towards Genma, "So, you lied to him. This makes things different. But, I'm still gonna claim what is rightfully mine. I will give you one month to train. Then we will fight." Without a word, he walked out of the dojo.

Genma got to thinking. (Kyote? That's the name of my daughter. Why is he using her name?)

Meanwhile, Ranma was worried. He thought, (If he could take out Pop so easily, then I don't stand a chance.

Ryoga Hibiki was sitting under a tree. In the forest, just North of Hokkaido, a lonely boy was thinking about an event that happened.

Last week, the Tendo's invited Kayley and him on a trip to a natural hot springs. (Of course, Ranma and Ryoga were acting exactly as they did when the ship, Bensense, shipwrecked and they were stranded.) that reference was from Ranma ½ the movie 2: Nihao My Concubine.

he remembered that Ranma was Still teasing him about his curse, "Man, you are SO slow, bacon bits. Just like a little pig."

Ryoga was fuming, "RANMAAA! How dare you say that!" He charged Ranma and suprisingly enough, was able to grab ahold of his target.

For a few minutes, they tussled on the ground, both exchanging blows whenever possible. Ranma finally managed to pin Ryoga to the ground, but at that moment, they heard Akane scream, "Ryoga! Come quickly! Kayley's hysterical and is clawing her shoulder!"

Ryoga agilely flipped Ranma out of the way and was on his feet in one smooth motion. His mind raced as he imagined everything that could have happened. When they arrived, Kayley was indeed screaming and her right shoulder was bleeding because she had dug her nails in so deep.

Ryoga called out to her as he waded through the water. As he reached her, Ryoga grabbed her wrists and told her, "Kayley, stop it! You're gonna hurt yourself! KAYLEY!"

She finally quit struggling. Her voice was shaky as she looked down to the shoulder she just mutilated, "Ryoga, it's back. The mark's back."

Ryoga looked at her shoulder and through the blood, he saw the mark of the Phoenix. Ryoga asked, "How…could it reappear?"

By this time, Kayley was hugging him saying, "Ryoga, I'm scared. What's going on?"

Ryoga knew that he had to stay calm for her sake, but he also had to get that wound taken care of. As he started leading her out of the water, he said, "don't worry, I'll figure out why that came back, but we've got to get that wound taken care of, okay?"

Kasumi had the first-aid kit, and a clean rag soaked with alcohol. She applied the rag to Kayley's shoulder and she jerked from the pain. Ryoga sat down next to her and held her so she could be treated. She did her best to keep from shouting out, through the pain.

A couple of hours later, Kasumi pulled Ryoga aside, "Ryoga. That wound was so deep, it could have easily became infected. What…(sigh)why would she do that to herself?"

Ryoga shook his head, "You don't understand, Kasumi. When we fought Saffron, he forced Kayley to reveal that mark to us. You can't imagine the shame that was on her face. I guess Saffron had her that terrified."

Kasumi commented sadly, "how terrible." She became serious, "Listen to me, Ryoga. Kayley is a very special person to you, right? She needs you, so you need to be there for her."

Back in the woods, Ryoga became even more sullen, "I'm sorry, I got lost again. I'm gonna find my way back."

The following Monday started pretty normal. Ranma and Akane argued their way to school. Kayley hadn't been getting much sleep since the Phoenix mark had appeared again. So she's been constantly yawning.

When they arrived at school, they saw a girl talking to Kuno. As if that wasn't weird neough, the girl had the same hair and blue-gray eyes that Ranma did. She walked away from Kuno and as she walked past Ranma, he thought he saw her sneering at him.

He walked up to Kuno and asked, "Who was that?"

Kuno answered, "That, Saotome, was the beautiful Kyo. Nabiki told her to come to me." After a moment, Kuno continued, "Strange. She looks so much like the pig-tailed girl."

Ranma thought to himself, "He's right. She looks like she could almost be my twin."

That afternoon, after gym, Rnam and the boys were taking their showers. Kyote walked in and went to the sinks. Now you know what happens to shower-water when you turn on a sink. Anyway, Kyote turned on the fot water. There was a lot of male screams and one female scream.

The men bailed out of the showers because it was so cold. Meanwhile, Kyote continued to turn the water on and off until Ranma got fed up with it and ran out screaming, "Alright! Who the he…" He saw who it was, "So it was you. Kyote, we're fighting in a month. Why can't you leave me alone till then?"

Kyote's eyes grew dark, unfocused. Ranma had never seen such anger before as Kyote growled, "Leav me alone? That's exactly what you did to me, and I will NOT leave you alone. EVER!"

Ranma realized just how irrational he was. Kyote turned away and started to walk off, but Ranma got mad, "Don't turn away from me like that!"

Kyote warned him, without turning, "Ranma, you better watch what you're saying."

Ranma continued, "Don't give me that crap! I won't be…"

Kyote warned again, "Ranma, you better shut up." Like a viper's strike, Kyote punched his fist through a concrete wall. Shocked, Ranma saw Kyote's bloody fist and his voice shaked with emotion, "You don't know what you've done to me."

Several days later, Kyo was jogging down the streets of Nerima. Her hand was bandaged up and she was in a real pensive mood. Anyone you gets in her way, when she was like this, would end up getting plowed. And to prove that point, she rammed into Mousse as she passed over a bridge. She knocked the poor boy completely off the concrete and into the river.

She stopped and waited for the boy to resurface, but he didn't. Then Kyo started to get worried, "I hope I didn't kill the kid." She jumped in to save him.

Kyote searched the water, but the only thing he saw was a drowning duck. A drowning duck? That was wierd enough, but this duck had bangs. Kyote thought, "Wait a second, ducks don't have bangs,"He wrapped the wet chinese robes around the duck as he searched for some hot water. He quickly found a public restroom. He locked the door, cupped his hands together and gathered hot water, turning him into a girl again. Suprise, suprise, huh? Kyote-chan splashed the duck and it turned back into a man. But there was another prblem, Mousse wasn't breathing.

She immediately started giving him mouth-to-mouth resussitation. Kyote-chan hoped she could save him, because she didn't want his death on her conscience. Finally, Mousse sucked in a deep breath, then started coughing.

Mousse started to get up but Kyote-chan pushed him back down and said, "Stay down. I don't wanna see you in your birthday suit."

Mousse looked down and saw that he was barely covered. Kyote-chan turned around while Mousse got dressed. She said, "I'm sorry. When I get this, I don't pay much attention to what I'm doing."

Mousse was finally dressed. He told her, "I'm glad you saved me." Mousse suddenly noticed something about Kyote-chan, "You…you look just like Ranma."

She lowered her eyes. She wasn't angry, in fact, she expected it. She told him, "I'm not surprised. My name's Kyote Saotome. I'm his sister."

Mousse said, "As I said, I'm grateful, but I'm afraid that your brother has some serious payback coming to him."

Kyote-chan snickered, "Get in line, but I don't think there'll be much left after I get through with him. You see I challenged him to a fight, but more importantly, I want him to know the pain I've felt."

Mousse made a comment, "Kyote, I have no doubt that you're strong, but Ranma isn't the type that would hit a girl. What makes you think that he'll fight you?"

She pulled her hair back in a rubberband, went to the sink and splashed herself with cold water. Kyote turned and replied in a male voice, "He probably wouldn't if he actually thought I was a girl."

Mousse realized, "You purposely jumped into Jusenkyo's cursed springs!" Kyote nodded his head, but Mousse started shaking him, begging, "You…you've got to show me which one is Nannichuan!"

Kyote moved Mousse's hands away, "Easy pal, it's not that simple."

Mousse asked, a bit annoyed, "Why not?"

She laughed, but it came out sounding like a cackle, "You expect me to be able to single out one spring out of 100+ springs? There's no way I could remember that."

Mousse answered, "You're right, but you couldn't blame me for trying."

Kyote smiled, "You're nice. How would you like to talk about this more while we get something to eat? It'll be my treat."

That night, Kyote-chan and Mousse where at a local diner. Kyote-chan was sipping on a Mudslide, Yeah, I know it's alcohol but in Japan, I'm pretty sure that the legal drinking age is 18 or 19. So she has the right. While Mousse was eating. Along with drinking, she was pouring her heart out to Mousse, "I was 9 years old. I was also almost a blackbelt. I should have gone with them, instead, they tried to turn me into the happy homemaker. I wanted to take over the family martial arts, have a real life. I just didn't want to be abandoned."

Mousse looked at her with pity. He began, "Kyote..I wish…"

She stopped him cold, "I don't want your sympathy. I really don't know what I'm gonna do about my brother, but that's our problem. Besides, according to what you said, you've got enough problems trying to get a girls attention."

Mousse admitted, "Yeah, thanks to Ranma, Shampoo doesn't even acknowledge me."

Kyote-chan smiled, " I might have an idea on how to help you, but I have to make sure of a few things first."

Mousse asked, "Why do you want to help me?"

Her face became sorrowful as she explained, "You're like me. Being abandoned by the one you love."

Ryoga was seriously lost. None of the surroundings were familiar, so he wasn't even sure if he was on the same continent anymore. He was in a forest, that much was positive. After a while of walking, he came to a sign. I believe I mentioned in Part 1 that Ryoga knew how to read and speak several languages. It read:

Welcome to Shing Ma Village.

He realized right away that he was in China. He also knew that the Shing Ma were a peaceful tribe and the elders tended to foresee the future.

He was immediately surrounded by warm greetings. The passer-bys each called out, "Nihao!"

Ryoga smiled thoughtfully. He knew he had to bring Kayley here someday. He found one girl and asked, "Do you know how to get to Nerima, Japan?"

She stared at him confusedly and answered, "I'm sorry. I never been out of this province."

He was disappointed, but he explained, "Please, can you lead me to someone who can help me? There's this girl that I'm in love with and I need to be with her."

She understood and told him, "I think Lady Ma Fing would know. She is very wise."

Ryoga nodded and replied, "Thank you. I appreciate it."

When they arrived, they saw an old woman, who was praying on some sort of ceremonial blanket. The young woman announced him, "Lady Ma Fing, I'm sorry to interrupt you, but this young man needs your help. His name is Ryoga Hibiki."

Ma Fing bowed to finish up her prayer, then she looked up and the site of him and her eyes went wide with shock. Her eyes still locked to him, she asked, "Please! Come closer!"

This was starting to creep Ryoga out, but he did as she told him. She continued, "Are you the lost one? The eternally cursed?"

Ryoga couldn't believe it. A total stranger just knew a stranger, kept hidden from even his parents. He asked cautiously, "How did you know?"

"This is very important. A girl, did you rescue her from the flames of the Phoenix?" She gathered from Ryoga's, almost horrified, reaction that she was right. She continued, "I know this must be quite a shock for you, so I shall explain."

"Fifteen years ago, I traveled to the Jusenkyo mountains. A young woman approached me with her 3 year old daughter. She was very pale, as if she was barely alive. I was reading fortunes at the time and I know I'll never forget that day. She had told me that it was too late for her, but she wanted to know about her daughter. My vision was thus."

"I saw the girl, considerably older, dying…"

Ryoga interrupted, "You saw Saffron draining her energy?"

Ma Fing replied, "Saffron? The man whom the Phoenix people considers a god? Yes, that's him."

She continued, "And I saw you, your heart full of sorrow, rescue her with a Lion's Roar." That was sort of a pun. Shishi-hokodan translates to lion's roar.

Ryoga asked expectantly, "The mark of the Phoenix has reappeared on her shoulder. I want to know when it will go away."

She concentrated a moment and soon her facial features became very uneasy, until she could no longer handle it. She gasped and tried to regain her composure.

Meanwhile, Ryoga asked, a bit worried, "What do you see?" In a way, he feared her answer.

She asked, "Are you prepared to see the future?"

Ryoga told her, "I have to know, no matter how horrible. I might be able to change it, if I know."

The old woman sighed, "Very well." Suddenly, Ryoga's mind was flooded with dark images. He was walking in a room, completely black, only a small portion was lit. As he approached, he saw a figure laying on the floor. It was Kayley. She was dead.

His worst nightmare was unfolding and he slumped to his knees.

For some unknown reason, he looked off to the side and saw someone. He saw a girl who looked somewhat younger. However, it was hard to tell because most of her face was still covered in the shadows. He did see slight evidence that her hair was a purple color. Also, her eyes, unmistakenly, had tears in them. Unable to contain his grief any longer, he grabbed his head with his hands and screamed out the word why.

The next thing he realized, he was back in the villiage, but he was still screaming and holding his head. Ryoga did his best to compose himself, and keep telling himself that it hasn't happened. Vowing not to let it happen. Eventually, Ryoga asked, "The girl…the girl who killed Kayley. Why was she crying?"

Ma Fing couldn't answer that and failed to admit that she didn't show him the entire vision. Refused to show that Kayley wasn't the only one to die. She simply remained silent.

Ryoga couldn't wait for her answer. With a heavy heart, he left the village, determined to return to Kayley to protect her. He even forgot his entire reason for seeing Ma Fing in the first place, directions.


	9. Chapter 9

I don't own Ranma 1/2 at all.

It was a Saturday morning. Actually the first day in a long time, that Kayley had felt well. Knowing the desturbing events that have recently plagued her friend, Akane suggested that they and Ranma go to the park.

Kayley came down in a T-shirt and shorts, still refusing to to show that hated mark on her shoulder, and got herself a bowl of cereal. Ranma was wearing his normal clothes, and praying that he didn't run into his insane brother. Akane was wearing a light-blue dress.

About an hour later, in the park, they noticed that a ring was set up and a woman kickboxer was challenging opponent after opponent and winning. After her recent victory, the woman announced boisterously, "Is there anyone else who will challenge Inoue Kotori?"

Kayley, who felt like she needed to know what she was made of, spoke up, "I'll take that challenge!"

She stepped into the ring and only a moment later, Inoue attacked. Kayley's defenses were real good, but knowing nothing about kickboxing, she decided to study her moves a little. One conclusion she came to was that Inoue was very aggressive. Although her techniques, themselves, were dangerous, she left herself open alot. Inoue's reach was better that Kayley's, however, so she couldn't attack without getting kicked first.

Kayley was the one who had something to prove, to herself, and she couldn't worry about being hit or not with this fight. She cleared her mind of everything and just ran at Inoue. Inoue waited till the right time and kicked. The attack made a small slice, not much bigger than a paper cut, accross Kayley's forehead. Blood seeped down, but she didn't notice and it didn't slow her down. When the moment came, Kayley did a backwards chop against Inoue's neck, knocking her unconscious immediately.

As soon as the fight was over, and Kayley was thinking clearly, the pain in her head hit her. She held her forehead and made her way out of the ring. Ranma was really impressed, "Wow! Where did that come from?"

She answer, "Nowhere. I just realized that I have to fight my own battles. I can't think about the consequences. Ryoga will be back and I must be stronger emotionally, for his sake, as well as my own."

Akane started to become a little worried, "That's great Kayley, but that cut's looking pretty nasty. I think we should go see Dr. Tofu about it."

Kayley had to wipe the blood that was trying to get in her eyes and commented, "You've got a point." It was at that point that Ranma started seeing Kayley, not as a helpless girl, but deternimed woman. He was beginning to understand why Saffron was using her energy.

It wasn't long before they reached Dr. Tofu's residence. As it turned out, it was a very small cut indeed. Dr. Tofu explained that on some parts of the body, the forehead being a perfect example, cuts tend to look worse than they really are. Even so, he wiped it clean and put a bandaid on it and sent them on their way.

Ranma still wasn't sure he knew what the deal with Kayley's sudden mood change was and, even though she gave an explaination, he felt it wasn't the real reason. Never being one for tact, he asked, "Why are you suddenly so happy today? Really."

She walked a little further before answering, "I know it's wierd, but, I can still remember my mother. Her pale skin, that tired expression on her face. I think... she gave up toward the end. Saffron not only sapped her energy, but her will to live as well. I realized that I was acting the same and I'd meet the same fate as Mother. I can't allow such a thing to happen, Ranma! Even if my heart grows cold, I won't allow myself to just lie down and die!"

This statement shocked both Ranma and Akane. Akane asked, "Are you sure you know what you're saying? Are you expecting something horrible to happen?"

Kayly shook her head, "No, but I never expected my life to be as good as it is and... I don't want to let it go." With that statement, they felt it would be best just to drop the entire conversation.

In another part of town, Kyote was making some kind of plans. Mousse was there, but was confused. He inquired, "What are you talking about, dating Akane?"

She laughed, "Of course it's not a real date. This is going to help the both of us, Mousse. If I go on a date with Akane, it will provoke Ranma. If he remains provoked until the fight, he won't be able to concentrate. Plus if Shampoo sees Ranma jealous, she might give up on him."

Mousse seemed a little saddened, "Is this right for us to do this Kyo?"

"Ranma's the reason you're miserable, isn't he?"

"Well," Mousse started.

Kyote continued, "He exploits people's weakness' just to win a fight! I'm going to take him off that high-horse of his and let him have it."

He questioned, "Exploits?"

Kyote, in her anger, began digging her nails into her hand, "I found out from Nabiki that Ranma often uses dirty tricks to confuse and hurt some poor boy to win. That boy probably feels like crap enough just losing, without my blasted brother messing with his emotions!"

Mousse was beginning to realize that this was getting out of control. He began to try reasoning with her, "Ryoga shouldn't have to have anything to do with this. Let him worry about his own problems. Besides, he's got his own girlfriend now and they don't fight like that anymore. Anyway, aren't you doing the same thing, messing with his mind I mean?"

She shook her head, "Mousse, I'm going to make him feel what it's like to have his confidence broken." Kyote was silent a moment. Mousse saw her close her eyes. He thought she might start crying as she said, "It hurts... being alone.

Mousse didn't understand that her revenge wasn't just because of Ranma. She was, as she felt, abandoned and given very few paths to take. The one path she did take had left her a very bitter person.

Ryoga was in an open field totally barren of civilization, yet within it stood a very unusual, very massive object. A stone piller stood brillantly, alone. It looked as if it was the legendary Tower of Babil, trying to touch the heavens. Even so, he could swear he saw a building pearched atop this magnificint pole, plus a ladder of unknown length was attached. He felt sure that someone lived there and that they would be able to get back to Nerima, so he began to climb.

It took half a day for him to even get half-way up. Ryoga saw a room, that was built into the pillar and thought he might could rest a bit , before continuing. Tap tap tap. The sound came from his right. He whirled around and saw, with disbelieving eyes, a white cat, carrying a wooden staff, and standing on two legs.

The cats eyes seemed closed, but Ryoga was no amature, he knew that this strange cat was well aware of his presence. Although it was highly unlikely that this was the product of a Jusenkyo curse, he had to remember what Pantyhose Taro would become and asked, "I..Is this Jusenkyo?"

The cat laughed. He, indeed, sounded very human, "You've gotta be kidding me! If you're looking for Jusenkyo, you're not even on the right continent, kid."

Ryoga shook his head, "Actually no, I'm trying to get back to Nerima before something bad happens."

It was then, that the unusual cat noticed the powerful ki or aura (as the westeners put it) that surrounded the boy. He insisted, "Tell you what, kid. Climb to the top of that ladder and you'll find a group of peopleup there, that's in quite a spot, that you might can help with. Give them a hand, and I bet my whiskers they can get you to where you're going, kid."

This news made Ryoga hopeful as he scattered for the ladder. The cat called out as the boy made his way up, "Tell 'em, Korrin sent you!"

As he reached the top, Ryoga Hibiki came to a flat area of land. Actually it wasn't land, the floor was made of some sort of white tile. About 80 feet away was a strange building. It was hard to say exactly, but Ryoga thought it had a middle eastern look. As he walked forword he called out, "Hello! Is anybody there!" His answer came to him in the form of a ball of energy.

Ryoga quickly rolled out of the way. As quick as he was to get to his feet, he could not escape the punch of an angry looking man with a receding hairline. The blow knocked Ryoga completely off his feet. He was hit so hard, he thought his jaw was broken.

A female voice broke into the tense situation, "Vegeta! How dare you attack that kid!" A woman with bluish-green hair, carrying a six-month old child walked into view. Ryoga got to his feet as the woman continued to chew Vegeta out. Finally, the woman turned to Ryoga and asked, "What are you doing here anyway? This isn't exactly part of a tour."

Ryoga ingored her and turned his frustration on his attacker, "You Bastard! What did you do that for!"

Vegeta's mild annoyance turned to rage, "What did you say, you pathetic human! You're dead meat!" He then proceeded to power up. Waves of golden energy surrounded Vegeta as he transformed into a super saiyan. To the others that knew Vegeta, this was overkill. Even Ryoga knew that this man was strong enough to rip his lungs out, he was a man with a mission.

He shouted, "Just leave me alone! Some stupid cat told me to come here! All I want is to get back to my girlfriend before something bad happens! And you're not gonna stop me!"

After hearing this Goku interfered, "Wait Vegeta! This kid isn't our enemy." A man with incredibly spikey hair came into view. He continued, speaking to Ryoga this time, "Some cat? Do you mean Korrin?"

Ryoga answered, "Yeah, that's what he said his name was. He said you needed help with some problem, and if I did help, you guys would help me get home." p 

A green creature that resembled a human, with the exception of having long, pointed ears, spoke this time, "He must be refering to the fight with Cell." p 

Vegeta snapped, "Honestly Namek. What could a weak human do against Cell?"

Ryoga's pride just got a sucker-punch to the stomach, "Oh yeah? I show you!" He ran over to one of the surrounding palm trees and with some effort, pulled it from it's roots and held it over his head. "How's that for weak!"

Krillen, who had watched the whole thing, sputtered, "D-Did you see that! He just ripped that tree outta the ground with his bare hands! I don't think I could do that. Goku, sure. Vegeta? Hell yeah, but I'm not sure about myself."

In his mind, Vegeta was at least a little impressed. He thought, "Not too bad for a human." Still he was not the type to compliment an imputant human. He spoke, "Your girlfriend is in trouble huh? Well I guess you'll have to plan her funeral, as weak as you are?"

Even if it wasn't meant to be taken seriously, there was no joking around with Ryoga. His eyes blazed red and an ugly red aura surrounded the boy as he screamed with uncontrollable fury, "Nothing's going to happen to Kayley! DO YOU HERE ME!" He launched himself towards Vegeta, ready to fight.

Not wanting to see the boy get himself killed, Goku intercepted Ryoga and grabbed the wrist he was going to attack Vegeta with. Rage took control of Ryoga's common sense as he screamed, "Get away from me!" and he used his other fist to punch Goku in the gut.

Goku had to take a step back from the punch. Still he tried to reason with the boy, "How'd you like to use that strength to protect that girl of yours."

Those words brought Ryoga to his senses as he relaxed and spoke, "To protect Kayley, I'll do anything."

  
  
  
Did you like. From this point on things should start getting interesting and a little hectic. Please enjoy and review.


	10. Chapter 10

I don't own ranma /12 or DBZ.

Honestly, Ryoga didn't realize what he had gotten himself into. The man named Vegeta had a worse temper than he did, so he thought best to not anger him. Plus the short, bald man thought that Ryoga was insane for agreeing to help fight Cell so readily. Situation aside, the enviroment he was in was very strange. Normal people, upon seeing two green people, one being a child no less, and several more named after food or vegetables, would have thought they'd lost it completely. Ryoga however, was used to the bizzare. He figured that if he could handle a 10 ft. platipuss, this would be a breeze. And for the most part he was right.

As he walked around the area, trying to find something. The bedroom, the bathroom, the kitchen, ANYTHING to try to familiarize himelf with so that he didn't get stuck wandering the same halls for several days. He came upon a young boy around 11 or 12 lying on the ground, scribbling in a notebook and humming to himself. Within a moment or two the child slammed the notebook shut and shouted gleefully, "Finally, my homework's done." He looked in Ryoga's direction and saw the newcomer. The child jumped to his feet and Ryoga was able to see him better. The young boy had spikey-blonde, and the same type of outfit the green man was wearing, even down to the cape.

The boy seemed to recognize Ryoga, as he spoke, "Hey, Dad told me about you. You're Ryoga, right? Where've you been? Dad said you just wandered off about an hour ago. You get lost or something?"

Although it was only meant to be a joke, to Ryoga it was life kicking him in the teeth again. However, he knew that the boy didn't know or was trying to be cruel about his directional curse. The boy even realized his mistake and quickly apologized, "Oops! You are lost. Sorry about that." In a change of subject, the boy announced, "I'm Gohan. You want me to show you where we're practicing for the Cell games?"

This was quite a suprise to Ryoga, "You're fighting too!"

Gohan responded, "Yeah." He then took hold of one of Ryoga's sleaves, "Like I said. Let me show you where we train." He then began leading Ryoga off in a completely different direction.

When they arrived, Ryoga saw Vegeta sparing with a young man about his own age. The young man had shoulder length, lavender hair and resembled Vegeta quite a bit in the face. Both were doing really well, then something weird happened, they took their fighting to the air. Ryoga's jaw fell to the floor. Krillin, who was next to him made a correct assumption, "Can't fly huh? Don't sweat it kid. Not many can. Don't worry I 'llteach you."

Ryoga imediately imagined himself lost in low orbit and quickly dismissed the offer, "No thanks. If I need to fly, I'll catch a plane."

Krillin shrugged. Goku finally realized Ryoga was here. He gave Ryoga his usual grin as he spoke, "Hey look who's here? Ready to show us us what you got?" He signaled for Krillin to come to the center, "You spar with him."

Ryoga looked up at the airborne combatants and realized that they weren't coming down for a while. He simply shrugged and stepped forward. Krillin assured him, "Don't worry, I'm not going to start flying on you." Ryoga shrugged his shoulders once again and got into his fighting stance.

Krillin made the initial attack. He started off with a mixture of various punches and kicks. Each attack was either quite easily blocked or easily withstood. It was now time for Ryoga to retaliate, but he was not going to go easy.

Ryoga quickly mangaged to get two quick punches and an uppercut off of Krillin before the short man jumped back. Using his weight as leverage, Krillin thrust himself at Ryoga and the two began exchanging blows. This went on for a while, before Ryoga recieved a hard punch to his cheek. This had gone on for nearly ten minutes and he wanted to be done with it. He thrust his hands to his chest, and formed a ball with them. He concetrated his sadness to form a red ball of energy and threw it at Krillin screaming, "SHISHI HOKODAN!"

This was quite unexpected. Krillin quickly jumped out of the way and returned fire with a Kamehameha. This time, Ryoga didnt have enough time to dodge. The blast hit him head on, but all it really managed to do is singe his clothing and hair. The only other thing it managed to do is piss Ryoga off. He ran at Krillin and thrust his finger into the ground at Krillin's feet. The ground at Krillin's feet exploded, causing him to unwillingly go flying backwards, into a tree. This was Ryoga's chance. Using a staggering amount of strength, he slammed his fist into Krillin's gut. This caused the tree to break from the force.

Finally, Goku said, "That's enough, Ryoga." Ryoga did stop attacking and went to help Krillin up.

Ryoga offered his hand and apologized, "Sorry about that."

Krillin grumbled, "What are you made of? Rock?"

Vegeta, still in midair, began laughing, "The shimp got his ass handed to him!"

Goku, however, was impressed, "Wow! That move. It's really similar to the Kamehameha. Where'd you learn it?"

Ryoga responded, "It doesn't matter where I learned any of it. You wouldn't recognize them anyway."

Trunks thought the boy was a bit rude, but he guessed it wasn't their business if Ryoga didn't want it to be. Still, no matter. Ryoga fought his battles with passion, and definately had a good reason to fight as hard as he could in this coming battle. With a little work Ryoga might be able to stand a chance of coming out of the Cell Games alive. But then, there was no assurance that any of them could preform such a feet. Still, an idea came to him. He sank to the ground, turned to Goku and asked, "What do you think about letting him train in the Hyperbolic Time Chamber?"

This idea never seemed to even occur to the sayian, but the thought of this human trying to face the harsh conditions displeased him, "You think that Ryoga can withstand the gravity or the near sub-zero temperatures? You know that's difficult, even for us."

They argued their points for a few minutes, then Ryoga interrupted them, "You're forgetting something. You're discussing what you want ME to do, but you're not ecen asking me. Plus, you're saying that I can't do something and I haven't even tried doing it."

Goku seemed suprised. He had no idea that this young man was this serious about this. Still, it was only right that he warned Ryoga about the hazards of the Time Chamber, "If that's what you want, then fine. But you must know that it's vey dangerous.

Ryoga answered, "Look, I appriciate your concern, but I have got to get a lot stronger than I already am. Not just because of Cell, but so I can protect Kayley."

Vegita overheard. It was meant to be an observation, not sarcasm, but he spoke, "You act like someone is trying to kill this woman of yours."

Ryoga turned his head up toward Vegita, glaring. Eventually, he realized it was useless to try and start a fight with him. It wouldn't do any good and it wouldn't make him feel any better. He was nothing like Ranma. Ryoga just gave him a dissmissive gesture and asked Trunks, "Just show me to this Chamber, would you?

On the way there, Trunks was explaining about the time span anomally and about not straying too far. This made Ryoga mentally pray to God for him not to get lost. As the arrived at the Chamber door, Trunks asked, "What got you so angry, Ryoga? I don't think Father was trying to be mean on purpose. Is this girl in danger?

Ryoga opend the door, but managed to be polite enough to answer his question, "It's quite possible. Look, I'm sorry to concern you with my problems." With that said, Ryoga entered life-threatening trial.

Ryoga immediately began feeling the effects of the heavy gravity, and fell straight to his knees. His muscles strained just to keep him on his hands and knees. Slowly, very slowly, He began building his endurance to this heavy gravity and just moving around. Eventually, he could begin his actual training. At this point in time, outside the living quarters, it was blisteringly hot. Apparently, this was something Trunks neglected to mention this and was only getting hotter. Ryoga removed his thick, yellow shirt and dug out his black, sleeveless shirt from his hiking pack. The rest of the day was spent practicing his martial arts.

Ryoga learned several things. He learned that during the times that the gravity was at it's peek, it was perfect for his martial arts and building up his strength even further. If it was particularlly cold, that was even better. He would stay warm. He got lost on a few occasions when he did get lost, but that, in those desperate times, his Shishi Hokodan technique have reached their peek. He couldn't tell if it was night or day, he just slept when he was tired and ate when he was hungry. Eventually, after managing to find his way back for the third time, he forced himself to learn to not leave eyesight of the living quarters. Through the entire year, Ryoga's motivation was always the same. To get back to Kayley and protect her.

The year was finally up. Vegita half-way thought they would either find him dead or ready to give up and go home. He was suprised to find that Ryoga had done neither and emerged somewhat changed. The most obvious change in him was his hair. As had happened with Gohan and Trunks, Ryoga's hair had grown out quite a bit. It now flowed past his shoulders. He had somehow managed to make his bandana continue to keep his bangs out of his eyes. He was now 17 years old, and much stronger than before. He even figued out a new technique to fight Cell with.

  
  
  
Well things are starting to pick up and Kyote's plan will be set into motion. Enjoy and review.


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